^^: 



DECAPOLIS: 



THE INDIVIDUAL OBLIGATION OF CHRISTIANS 
TO SAVE SOULS FROM DEATH. 



AN ESSAY. 



REV. DAVID EVERARD FORD. 



" Jesiis saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the 
Lard hath dene for thee, and hath had compassion en thee. And he departed, and 
began to publish in Decapolis, how great things Jesus had dane^JoxJuoKi^^and all men 
didmarvd." Mark v. 19, 20. '"^"0 ' !_.::_.„ "^^r\ -. 




■<.^-^ 



•torn ti)e last SontJoti SStiition. 



BOSTON: 

TAPPAN & DEN NET, 

114 Washington Street. 

1841. 









^ S N. DICKINSON, Printer, } 
} 52 Washington St. Boston. ^ 



PREFACE 

TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



Whatever reception may await this book at 
the hands of the religious public, it is my 
consolation to know that the views which it 
advocates have been owned of God to the sal- 
vation of many souls. 

This is my only apology for a style which 
may seem in some instances to savour of dog- 
matism. I have no wish to cast one unkind 
reflection on brethren who differ from me ; to 
our Master we stand or fall: but I must express 
myself strongly, for I speak that which I know, 
and testify that which I have seen. 

I have written for Christians. Should my 
remarks awaken attention, they will fall into 
the hands of many who have no right to that 
holy name. A previous question demands their 
notice, a question to which every other ought 
to be postponed, and from which I would be 
among the last to divert them for one moment 



IV PREFACE. 

— the question of the Philippian gaoler to Paul 
and Silas, — " What must I do to be saved ? " 

And who are Christians ? The disciples of 
Christ ; men who have given their hearts to 
God, and, on the ground of the great sacrifice 
for sin, have consecrated their bodies, souls, and 
spirits to the service and glory of their Creator 
and Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. 

To such, the following observations are ad- 
dressed. Brethren ! suffer the word of exhor- 
tation. Soon we must give an account of our 
stewardship, and, in the presence of Him who 
redeemed us unto God by his blood, narrate the 
efforts we have made to secure and extend the 
blessings of that atonement in the world where 
he labored, and for which he died. The Lord 
grant that we may find mercy of the Lord in 
that day ! 

D. E. F. 

Lymington, May 29, 1840. 



PREFACE 

TO THE SECOND EDITIOJ^. 



Among the happiest recollections of my life, 
I shall henceforth regard the authorship of the 
following Essay. I am free to acknowledge 
that when I first committed it to the press, it 
Avas with fear and trembling. My misgivings 
arose not from any doubt as to the correctness 
and scriptural sanction of the views which I 
attempted to advocate; but from apprehensions 
as to the unpreparedness of the faithful them- 
selves to admit representations of personal re- 
sponsibility, so repugnant to the comfortable 
notions and sacred prejudices of men, whose 
highest w^ish is to be " at ease in Zion." 

I then expected censure, and was prepared to 
meet it ; but now I gratefully record the disap- 
pointment of my fears. From all quarters, I 
have received the most cheering assurances that 
the blessing of Heaven has already attended 
this feeble endeavour to awaken the energies of 



VI PREFACE. 

the Christian world. Of this fact, almost every 
post brings me some pleasing intelligence ; and 
among my correspondents on that subject, I can 
reckon some of the most distinguished servants 
of God, at present found in this earthly region 
of his universal church. 

To the editors of the various religious peri- 
odicals which have noticed *' Decapolis ;" and 
not less to the numerous friends, known and 
unknown, who have publicly recommended it 
from the pulpit or the platform, I present my 
cordial thanks. But above all, to Him *' whom 
I serve with my spirit in the Gospel of his 
Son," my grateful acknowledgments are due, 
that he should have rendered my little book in 
any degree subservient to the promotion of His 
glory. To His gracious benediction I now 
commend this new and enlarged edition, with 
fervent prayer that every copy may awaken 
some disciple of Christ to renewed and success- 
ful exertion for the salvation of souls. 

D. E. F. 

Lymingto7iy October 19, 1840. 



DECAPOLIS. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Apostles have now rested from their 
labours nearly eighteen centuries. Were they 
to return to earth again, would they find the 
world, would they find even the church, in that 
condition in which they expected it to be eigh- 
teen hundred years after their decease ? 

We have no right to evade this question, or 
to answer it in the afiirmative, on the ground of 
their inspiration : First, because we are not 
quite sure that it was given them " to know the 
times " or " the seasons," Acts i. 7 ; and next, 
because knowledge derived from such a source, 
having no connection whatever with human 
calculation and forethought, would not bear on 
the present inquiry. The question before us 
can only be entertained while we speak after 
the manner of men, and regard the apostles, in 



8 STATE OF RELIGION 

the absence of direct information from Heaven, 
as forming their opinions of the future, as we 
are accustomed to form them, according to ap 
pearances and probabilities. Make then every 
reasonable allowance for the discouraging mat- 
ters with which they were undoubtedly ac- 
quainted ; give all possible weight to the 
prediction of *' a falling away first," and the 
revelation of the man of sin, 2 Thess. ii. 3 ; 
bear in mind that they testified by the Spirit 
that in the last days perilous times should come, 
2 Tim. iii. 1, and that scoffers should walk after 
their own lusts, saying, ** Where is the promise 
of his coming ? " 2 Pet. iii. 4 ; yet can we im- 
agine that the church of the nineteenth century 
would be found to answer the expectations 
which, with all these deductions, they would 
indulge, and which the successes of their own 
short and brilliant career abundantly justified ? 
But apart from all conjecture as to their 
expectations, does the present state of religion 
answer our own ? Our notion of excellence is 
probably too defective, and our conception of 
eminent piety too low, to enable us readily to 
detect and expose all the evils over which an 
apostle would mourn ; still we may discern 



IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 9 

enough to excite our bitter lamentation. The 
man who can read the New Testament, and 
maintain that the religion which it teaches is 
now in the position in which it ought to be, or 
in the position in which ere now it would have 
been if the servants of Christ in former ages 
had been faithful to his claims, has little infor- 
mation, or less piety, and is probably one of the 
innumerable victims now on their way to per- 
dition, or already there, who may charge the 
loss of their souls to the apathy of the church, 
and whose blood will be required at the watch- 
man's hand, Ezek. xxxiii. 6. 

To evade the fearful responsibility w^hich 
such a statement involves, some have gravely 
questioned whether salvation by Christ was ever 
intended to be good tidings of great joy '' to 
all people," while others have referred the 
whole matter to the sovereignty of God, and 
have assigned as a sufficient reason for the past 
and present state of things among us, that the 
time to favour Zion is not yet come. How far 
these opinions are tenable, it is the design of 
some of the following pages to inquire. My 
own conviction is, that they savour less of piety 
than of indolence, and that they find no sanction 



10 STATE OF RELIGION 

in Divine revelation. '* Thus speaketh the 
Lord of hosts, sa3n'ng, This people say, The 
time is not come, the time that the Lord's house 
should be built. Is it time, ye, to dwell in 
your ceiled houses, and this house of mine to 
lie waste ? " Haggai, i. 2, 4. 

Admitting that the expectations of the prim- 
itive Christians have failed, it behooves us to 
account for the failure. Has the Gospel proved 
itself unequal to the task of overcoming the 
prejudices and renewing the hearts of men? 
Or has the Holy Spirit, grieved and disgusted 
with human depravity, taken his flight to 
heaven, leaving the church to flounder on 
amidst its difficulties as best it may ? 

Happily, these are questions which we are 
enabled to meet with a decided negative. God 
has not forsaken his church. The Gospel is 
still his mighty power unto salvation. Chris- 
tianity shows no indications of decrepitude or 
decay. The times have not outgrown it, and 
we are sure that they never will. The discov- 
eries of science have neither shaken its evi- 
dences nor superseded its information, and we 
are sure that they never will. While human 
misery remains, here is its balm. While piety 



IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 11 

finds an asylum upon earth, here is its temple. 
While man remains a transgressor, and is 
desirous of pardon, here is the sacrifice " which 
taketh away the sin of the world," John i. 29. 

We may call a thousand witnesses, men of 
sound judgment and unquestionable veracity, 
w^hose united testimony will prove the truth of 
these assertions. They will furnish the best 
possible evidence of the facts, for of those facts 
they themselves are a part. They know the 
power of the Gospel, for it has renewed their 
hearts ; they can attest the gracious energy of 
the Holy Spirit, for he has sanctified their 
souls ; and amidst all the remaining imperfec- 
tions, of w^hich they are deeply conscious, and 
from which they daily seek deliverance, each 
can say, '* By the grace of God, I am what I 
am," 1 Cor. xv. 10. 

But though the Gospel proves itself '^ the 
power of God unto salvation to every one that 
believeth," Eom. i. 16, — the millions do not 
believe ; and, with relation to the greater part, 
the appalling question still retains its force — 
** How shall they call on him in whom they 
have not believed ? and how shall they believe 
in him of whom they have not heard ? and how 



12 THE MILITi\NT CHURCH, 

shall they hear without a preacher ? and how 
shall they preach except they be sent ?" Eom, 
X. 14, 15. And to make the matter incompar- 
ably worse, the increase of population and the 
triumphs of discovery have so far outrun the 
efforts of the church to spread the Gospel, that 
we can no longer follow the apostle in the chal- 
lenge with which he concludes his appeal — 
** I say, have they not heard ? Yes, verily, 
their sound went into all the earth, and their 
words unto the ends of the world." Verse 18. 
The Captain of our salvation, when he as- 
cended on high, commissioned the armies of 
the faithful to subdue all nations to his domin- 
ion. For a season they attended to his orders : 
the weapons of their warfare w^ere mighty, 
through God, to the pulling down of strong- 
holds. Nothing could resist them : the fast- 
nesses of ignorance and the ramparts of super- 
stition shared the fate of the walls of Jericho ; 
they fell at the blast of the trumpet, and the 
hosts of God had only to march onward and 
take possession. The fear of them fell upon 
all nations ; their enemies submitted by thou- 
sands, almost without a struggle, and went 
over to join their ranks and share their tri- 



THE MILITANT CHURCH. 13 

umphs. Hell looked on with amazement, and 
the god of this world trembled for his sceptre. 
Had they thus gone on from conquering to 
conquer, captivity had now been captive, the 
whole earth had submitted to the King of Zion, 
and centuries of peace and righteousness had 
marked the history of all nations. But they 
became contented with their conquests ; they 
thought they had done enough, and that the 
time w^as come to divide the spoils. Among 
those spoils was found many a wedge of gold, 
many a goodly Babylonish garment ; and there 
was no Joshua there to demand that Achan's 
sin should rest on his own head, and so the 
anger of the Lord be turned away from the 
camp of Israel. And what is their position 
now ? Many of their early posts have been 
abandoned ; some of their most valuable pos- 
sessions have fallen again into the hands of the 
foe ; and throughout the remainder of the con- 
quered territory they have built themselves 
garrisons and citadels, where they may dwell 
at ease and sing, " How goodly are thy tents, 
O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel!" — 
They have boasted, and not without reason, 
that they have for their defence the munition of 

B 



14 AWFUL FACTS. 

rocks, and that beneath are everlasting' arms. 
They glory in the thought that their bulwarks 
are impregnable, and that the gates of heJl 
have assaulted them in vain. But these walls 
of strength they have made their prison ; they 
have dwelt in their garrisons, and have con- 
tented themselves with garrison duty: constant 
on parade, they have had their reviews and 
their field-days ; and the world, the world in 
rebellion against God, — the world which they 
were commanded to subdue to the sceptre o-f 
Christ, — that world has stood by, admiring the 
correctness of their movements, the splendour of 
their uniforms, and the polish of their arms. 

Enough of figures ; we come to facts. Is it 
not a fact, that Christians are dwelling at ease, 
while myriads around them are perishing in 
ignorance and sin ? Is it not a fact, that no 
aggressive movement, w^orlhy of the cause of 
God, has been made for ages ? Is it not a fact, 
that though the church has long been praying 
for the conversion of the world, it has never yet 
put forth an effort of which it could entertain a 
hope that God would prosper it to that end? 

I make these statements w^ith no view to 
depreciate the amount of good which has really 



THE HEATHEN WORLD. 15 

been accomplished. In the success which has 
recently attended the preaching of the Gospel 
both at home and abroad, most heartily do I 
rejoice. I am even prepared to admit, that at 
no former period, since the days of the apostles, 
have equal exertions been made to spread the 
knowledge of salvation, and that, in proportion 
to their extent, they have been crowned with a 
large measure of success. Still, some melan- 
choly facts not only mark the history of the 
past, but throw their dark shadows over the 
future. The church has slumbered for ages, 
and is now only half awake. ** Watchman, 
what of the night ? Watchman, what of the 
night ? " is an inquiry v/hich betokens incipi- 
ent consciousness ; but the answer falls un- 
heeded, or surely the church would never sleep 
again: — *' The morning cometh, and also the 
night,*' Isa. xxi. 12. 

^' The dark places of the earth are full of the 
habitations of cruelty," and it is impossible for 
the most enlightened mind to entertain any 
thing like a correct apprehension of the igno- 
rance, and crime, and misery, with which the 
world abounds. Many hundred millions of hu- 
man beings, indeed, by far the greater portion 



16 CHRISTENDOM. 

of the entire race, are enduring all the evils 
which sin has entailed on mankind, without the 
slightest conception that God has turned the 
curse into a blessing, is waiting to be gracious, 
and has so loved the world as to give his only- 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life. 
The message of heavenly mercy has been in 
the hands of the church eighteen hundred years, 
and three fourths of the human race are still 
unconscious that such a message has been sent. 

Well may we say, as David did when Saul 
and Jonathan were slain, ** Tell it not in Gath, 
publish it not in the streets of Askelon, lest the 
daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the 
daughters of the uncircumcised triumph ! " But 
our silence comes too late, and will avail us 
nothing : it will not even conceal our disgrace ; 
the secret has transpired ; hell knows it, and 
has blazoned it abroad, to persuade mankind 
that Christians do not believe the religion which 
they profess. 

We leave the heathen world, and turn to 
Christendom, (a name, by the way, which no 
country under heaven yet deserves,) and here 
the view is sufficiently appalling. There is 



ENGLAND. 17 

probably not to be found a single populous dis- 
trict, where Christians bear to the inhabitants a 
greater proportion than one tenth ; and although a 
large deduction may be made for those who, in 
our estimation, have not attained the age of 
personal accountableness, the result is frightful. 
Christ has the few, Satan the many. Crowds 
are sinking into perdition from the midst of our 
most Christianized localities, and their dying 
groans are saying, *' No man careth for our 
souls." 

It is to be questioned whether in England, 
even in those districts where there is the largest 
proportion of true godliness, conversion gains 
upon population. Let any one, acquainted with 
the facts of our religious history, and compe- 
tent to form an opinion, compare one census 
with another, and say whether the total amount 
of conversions, among all denominations, du- 
ring the ten intervening years, equals the aug- 
mented number of souls within that district ; to 
say nothing of those, (not much less than one 
third of the whole surviving population,) who 
during the interval have passed into eternity. 

On the reader who questions the correctness 
of this statement, I would with much affection 



18 SOULS ARE PERISHING. 

and tenderness press the inquiry, Is he a com- 
petent judge ? ^' Except a man be born again, 
he cannot see the kingdom of God," John iii. 3. 
Facts, which will deeply afflict a pious mind, 
will be regarded wath indifference or incredu- 
lity by ** the natural man," who receives not 
the things of the Spirit of God, and to w^hom 
they are foolishness, 1 Cor. ii. 14. He heeds 
not the melancholy procession which throngs 
the road to death, and the reason is, that he is 
journeying in the same direction. 

But are proofs demanded? We have them 
in abundance. It is a notorious fact, that thou- 
sands among us are living in open profligacy, 
and that thou§ands more altogether neglect even 
the forms of godliness : they belong to no reli- 
gious community, and they seek none. Of those 
who attend public w^orship, a large proportion 
frequent ministrations w^hich have never con- 
verted one soul, and never will. And of those 
who habitually listen to a faithful and apostolic 
ministry, vast numbers have only a name to 
live, and are dead. Rev. iii. 1. In all our sanc- 
tuaries there are some, in most there are many, 
of whom no enlightened Christian can entertain 
a hope ; and the only difference between them 



SOULS ARE PERISHING. 19 

and others who are more openly walking in the 
way of sinners is, that they have found a by- 
path to hell by the side of Calvary. 

It is readily admitted that these appalling 
facts are disbelieved by some, and overlooked 
by others, and that on few or none do they 
produce so deep an impression as their fearful- 
ness demands. But never, until they are right- 
ly regarded, will there be a thorough revival in 
the church, or a general awakening in the 
world. In the absence of powerful apprehen- 
sions of the guilt and danger of all the uncon- 
verted and of the absolute certainty of ever- 
lasting death, sinners will give themselves little 
trouble about salvation, and Christians will 
never awake to their awful responsibility. 

We may set it down as an ascertained fact, 
that until the terrors of hell are poured forth on 
the consciences of men, there will never be a 
general reception of the Gospel, or even a stren- 
uous effort for its propagation. To welcome 
escape, we must first be aware of our danger. 
To attempt the relief of suffering, we must first 
be assured of its existence. And, in either 
case, our efforts will be proportionate to our 
convictions. 



20 IMPORTANCE AND NECESSITV 

This accounts for the terrific character of the 
personal ministry of our Lord. In his discour- 
ses, *'the worm, that dieth not/* Mark ix. 44, 
** the damnation of hell,'* Matt, xxiii. 33, and 
** everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his 
angels,** chap. xxv. 41, are subjects of more 
frequent recurrence than in any of the writings 
or discourses of the prophets or apostles. From 
this circumstance we may learn, that real com- 
passion for souls will induce us to call awful 
things by awful names, that '* knowing the ter- 
ror of the Lord,'* we may ** persuade men," 2 
Cor. V. 11, and save them ** with fear, pulling 
them out of the fire," Jude 23. That is indeed 
mistaken tenderness which soothes, as it nurses 
for the flames, the victims of the second death. 
How vain the task to hoard with care, and deck 
with gold, the vessel of wrath, fitted for de- 
struction, and soon to be dashed in pieces ! 

And in order to extensive usefulness, there 
must not only be an apprehension that souls are 
perishing, but a deep and settled conviction that 
they deserve to perish. Our. views of sin, taken 
not from the opinions of men, but from the ora- 
cles of truth, must give a decided negative to 
the question, ** Is God unrighteous who taketh 



OF CORRECT VIEWS OF SIN. 21 

veno-eance ?" Eom. iii. 5. While we harbour 
the slightest notion that eternal death is too se- 
vere a penalty for human guilt, we are less the 
disciples of Christ than of Satan. " Ye shall not 
surely die,'* Gen. iii* 4, was the insinuation of 
the tempter to Eve, and its effect was fatal. Its 
ruinous success in that instance, has occasioned 
its constant repetition ever since ; and of all the 
doctrines of devils, current among mankind, 
this is undoubtedly the most popular. But fond- 
ly as this sentiment is cherished in the heart, it 
is doomed to fall before the truth. And fall it 
must, as Dagon fell before the ark of the cove- 
nant, ere God will enter in and dwell there. 

Hence, the first object of the Holy Spirit is to 
*^ reprove the world of sin," John xvi. 8. What- 
ever the awakened sinner may think of others, 
he entertains no doubt that he himself deserves 
eternal death. And so deeply is this conviction 
wrought upon his rrrind, that it is often very 
difficult to persuade him of the possibility of his 
salvation. And it is only as he apprehends the 
grand design of the Gospel, that God " inight 
be just, and the justifier of him which believeth 
in Jesus," Rom. iii. 26, that he dares to cherish 
a hope of pardon. But the awakened sinner is 



22 RELIGIOUS FAVOURITISM. 

not more righteously or more certainly exposed 
to everlasting death than his unawakened neigh- 
bour, or than the whole unconverted world. 
The facts are the same. The only difference is, 
that by him they are perceived, while by others 
they are disregarded. That which he has dis- 
covered by the light of truth, the light of eter- 
nity will reveal to all. 

To anticipate that fearful disclosure, to warn 
the sinner of the doom which awaits him, and 
to warn him now, while yet there remains a way 
of escape, is the sacred obligation of all who 
love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. But it 
is only in proportion as they themselves believe 
with the heart all the facts of the case, that they 
will be prepared thus to serve their generation 
according to the w^ill of God. Indistinct or 
doubtful apprehensions of the truth, wall utterly 
disqualify us to become instructers of others. 
** If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who 
shall prepare himself to the battle ?" 1 Cor. xiv. 8. 

Christians often allow natural affection to 
neutralize their religious convictions. They 
admit that the wrath of God abides on the un- 
believer, provided always, however, that the 
unbeliever on whom that w^rath shall abide is 



THE PROFLIGATE SON. 



23 



not one of their kindred. They can think of 
the world at a distance as going down to the 
chambers of death, and lying there *' in ever- 
lasting chains under darkness unto the judg- 
ment of the great day," Jude 6 ; but they shrink 
from the thought when it comes more closely 
home. It is an awful but indisputable fact, that 
the most devoted Christians rarely admit that 
their near relatives are gone to hell. Hence 
their sincerity is suspected, and their warnings 
are despised. To show the correctness of this 
startling assertion, take the following case : 

A good man has a profligate son who is cut 
off in the midst of his sins. The last act of his 
life was an act of impiety, and the circumstan- 
ces of his death were such as Solomon predict- 
ed : '* He that being often reproved, hardeneth 
his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that 
without remedy." Prov. xxix. 1. The body is 
brought home to his father's house, and is there 
made ready for the grave. That father has 
other children, for whom he has often trembled, 
lest the contagion of their brother's example 
should prove their destruction. Now is the 
time to make an impression on their hearts, and 
to turn even the ruin of their brother to a good 



. 24 A fathp:r's appeal. 

account. Imagine then the agonized father, ta- 
king each child in succession to view the corpse, 
and saying, " There lies the body of your wick- 
ed brother. His soul is in hell. Take warnings 
or you will follow him. Flee to Christ at once, 
or I shall one day despair of your salvation, as 
I now do of his. The only consolation I have 
concerning him is, that he has not been able to 
charge the ruin of his soul to me. I am guilt- 
less of that young man's blood. You know, 
and God knows, that I warned him day and 
night with many tears. I prayed for him, I 
prayed with him, I prayed with him alone, and 
I besought him by the tender mercies of God, to 
turn from his wickedness and live, but he would 
not hearken. And now, I own him for my son 
no more. Our separation is final and eternal. 
But, my dear child, ' of whom I travail in birth 
again, until Christ be formed in you,' Gal. iv. 19, 
must I also part with you ? Shall all my hopes, 
and prayers, and aims be lost ? Shall it never 
be mine to say before the throne, * Here am I, 
and the children which God has given me?' 
Your brother has perished in his sins. Will 
you perish too ? Is the Redeemer of the w^orld 
unworthy of your love ? He died for your sal- 



FATAL TENDERNESS. 25 

Tation. Will you refuse to obey him ? He is 
waiting to pardon your sins. Will you have re- 
demption through his blood ? He is waiting to 
receive your soul. Will you devote it to his 
praise ? Now is the accepted time, now is the 
day of salvation. Hear his voice. Harden not 
your heart. Flee for refuge, to lay hold of the 
hope set before you. And then I shall rejoice 
amidst my sorrows, and say, at least of you, 
* This my son was dead, and is alive again, he 
was lost, and is found.' " Let such an address 
be immediately followed by prayer suited to the 
awful occasion, and where is the child that 
would ever forget it, or afterwards think his fa- 
ther's religion a lie ? 

Do any ask. What father could do it ? I an- 
swer, the man who believes his Bible, and 
thinks it bad enough to have one child in hell. 
But suppose, that instead of taking such a course, 
he spares his feelings. He cannot bear to think 
that his child is lost. He breathes the whisper 
of hope where facts warrant nothing but despair. 
And what is the result ? One son says to him- 
self, '* Well, I am sure that my poor brother was 
a great deal worse than I have ever been. He 
died as he lived, and if he is gone to heaven, I 



^// 



26 RUINOUS CONSEQUENCES 

need not be afraid of going to hell.'* That 
young man takes courage in his sins, and from 
that day becomes a profligate. Another comes 
to the conclusion, that with all his pretence 
to piety, his father does not believe the religion 
which he professes ; that the wrath of God, and 
the loss of the soul, are phrases which have a 
place in his creed, but to which there is nothing 
correspondent in the true sentiments of his 
heart. He leaps to the conclusion, that if his 
father is a hypocrite, religious men in general 
are no better ; and thus the circumstance which, 
if rightly improved, might have been God's 
message of mercy to the salvation of his soul, 
seals his ruin. He becomes an infidel. 

It may perhaps be objected that this case is an 
extreme and improbable one, and that no real 
Christian would entertain hope of a child who 
had died under such circumstances. Perhaps 
not. But many who pass for Christians would, 
and few would censure them. Had they been 
in the place of David when Absalom was slain, 
instead of regarding his soul as lost, as he evi- 
dently did, they would have cherished the hope 
that the interval, " while he was yet in the 
midst of the oak," was so employed, that the 



OF MISTAKEN CHARITY. 27 

darts of Joab, when they were thrust through 
his heart, inflicted the last pang he would ever 
suffer. 

Conversion in the last extremity of life, is 
the only hope of the multitude. It is the last 
resort of the impenitent, and Christians have 
sanctioned the delusion. Even their anxiety to 
visit the sick has been wrongly interpreted by 
the world, and taken to indicate views of reli- 
gion, from which an enlightened mind would 
shrink with horror. Thousands are of opinion, 
that all that needs to be done to set them right 
for heaven, is to have some spiritual adviser to 
attend their last hours. *' This their way is 
their folly, yet their posterity approve their 
sayings." Warm-hearted, but injudicious 
Christians, have given it their sanction, by 
laying great stress on circumstances which at 
best would only warrant a trembling hope. 
Sorrow for sin, and alarm of conscience, prompt- 
ed only by the near approach of eternity, have 
been mistaken for conviction and repentance 
of "a godly sort," 2 Cor. vii. 9—31, and the 
promises of the Gospel, and the consolations 
of Christ, have been addressed to persons, to 
whom the extent and spirituality of the claims 



28 RUINOUS CONSEQUENCES 

of God, and the terrors of his righteous law, 
would have been subjects far more seasonable. 
The common result of such treatment is, that 
all anxiety is hushed, and a calm ensues which 
not a breath disturbs. The man has mistaken 
remorse for penitence, and vows of a new life 
for evidence that he is a new creature. All 
misgivings, doubts, and fears, are thenceforth 
regarded as intrusive, and are instantly put 
away. ^*A deceived heart hath turned him 
aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, 
Is there not a lie in my right hand ? " Isa. 
xliv. 20. And thus he leaves the world. His 
supposed conversion and happy death supply 
the subject of a funeral sermon. Large num- 
bers attend, for the occasion is an attractive 
one. They wish to learn how men may 
neglect the claims of God in health and 
strength, and yet find peace and joy on the 
arrival of sickness and death. It is the very 
thing which they most of all desire. If they 
may but neglect religion all their lives, they 
have no objection whatever to pay it their 
dying regards. They listen with approving 
attention, and take courage to trifle a little 
longer. Oh, what a sermon would they have 



OF MISTAKEN CHARITY. 29 

if the lost soul could occupy that pulpit, and 
tell them that the peace which comes not by 
the blood of the cross is a delusion, Col. i. 20, 
and that the hope of the hypocrite shall perish ! 
Job xxvii. 8. 

I am aware that such statements as these 
are thought very uncharitable. Be it so ! 
Charity to the dead is often destruction to the 
livinor ; and it is with the latter exclusively 
that we have to do. The departed cannot be 
injured, or even annoyed, by any judgment of 
ours, however uncharitable ; whereas our favor- 
able opinion concerning them may induce oth- 
ers to go and do likewise — to trifle with Christ 
and eternity till health and life are almost 
gone, and then, when the world can charm no 
longer, to compromise matters with their Crea- 
tor as best they may. Thus, while on the one 
hand the indulgence of groundless hope can 
render no service to the objects of our compas- 
sion, (now, alas ! too late, their state being 
unalterably fixed for ever ;) on the other, sur- 
vivors may be strengthened in their impiety, 
and the threatenings of God be made '* of none 
effect." 

But the objection mav be started : What 
0* 



30 A MELANCHOLY INSTANCE 

right have we to entertain an unfavorable opin- 
ion, or to pronounce judgment, when all the 
evidence we have is to the contrary ? The 
answer to this question turns upon another : Is 
that evidence satisfactory ? 

A pastorate of nearly twenty years has made 
me familiar with scenes of affliction. I can 
hardly remember a case in which sickness did 
not dispose the mind to think seriously of reli- 
gion, especially when early associations had led 
that way. But how has it been with those who 
have returned to life again ? They have left 
their religion in the chamber of affliction, and 
not a vestige of piety has remained to attest the 
genuineness of their conversion. 

I have seen sinners brought to God amidst all 
the varieties of Christian experience ; some by 
the terrors of the law, others by the attractions of 
the cross; some by a long and almost imper- 
ceptible process, others, comparatively, in a 
moment ; but scarcely in a single instance have 
I found conversion, or even real awakening, 
dated from affliction. If ten were cleansed, 
where are the nine ? "It has happened unto 
them according to the true proverb. The dog is 
turned to his own vomit again, and the sow 



OF DISAPPOINTED HOPE. 31 

that was washed to her wallowing in the mire," 
2 Pet. ii. 22. Would that piety which could 
not stand the test of a return to life have avail- 
ed the soul in death? Let conscience say. 

I shall never forget an instance of disappoint- 
ed hope which occurred in the early part of my 
career. A 3^oung man who had been instructed 
in a Sabbath-school as to the elements of reli- 
gion, but had never made any pretension to 
piety, was stricken with an alarming disease. 
His concern about his soul was immediate and 
overwhelming. *' What must I do to be sav- 
ed ?" seemed the one question which absorbed 
all his thoughts. Those around him did not 
fail to expound the reply of Paul and Silas — 
** Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." He lis- 
tened most intently ; hope sprang up in his 
soul, and passages of scripture which he had 
learned at school, but which had till then escap- 
ed his memory, came pouring into his mind 
with a richness, propriety, and consecutiveness 
truly wonderful. Disease now gained upon him, 
and all hope of recovery fled. The surgeon 
plainly told him that nothing more could be 
done, and that a few hours would terminate his 
life. He received the announcement with per- 



32 A MELANCHOLY INSTANCE, ETC. 

feet composure, and said that he had no wish 
to live, his only desire was to depart and be 
with Christ. Inexperienced as I then was, had 
he died, I should not have entertained a doubt 
of his safety. But the surgeon was mistaken: 
to the surprise of every one, his recovery was 
soon completed. He went to the house of God 
the first Sabbath he was able to w^alk, and 
returned thanks for his restoration. For the 
next few Sabbaths following he was there : 
afterwards I missed him. For some time I was 
unable to learn what had become of him ; at 
last I ascertained that an act of gross immoral- 
ity had rendered it expedient for him to leave 
the neighborhood. 

After the lapse of twenty years, I very unex- 
pectedly met with him once again. During the 
interval he had become a hardened sot. At the 
time of this interview, however, he was perfect- 
ly sober, but he appeared to have forgotten me. 
I reminded him of his vows in affliction. He 
then mentioned my name. I endeavored to 
recall his former impressions, but the attempt 
was hopeless; his conscience was seared, as 
with a hot iron; all I could get him to say of 
the affliction which once seemed so hopeful, 
was, ** I have no wish to remember it." 



CHAPTER II. 

Never can it be too deeply impressed on the 
minds of all who are anxious to bring sinners 
to Christ, that health is the season of benefit, 
as "vvell as usefulness. Of the man who amidst 
the excitements of life becomes awakened to 
aa apprehension of his guilt and danger, we 
may entertain some reasonable hope ; but when 
cares for eternity come across the mind only 
when it has nothing else to engage it, the result 
is at best but doubtful. The sick demand our 
kindness, our sympathy, and our prayers ; but 
if we wish to save men's souls, our chief atten- 
tion must be directed to those who need no 
other physician. 

Through inattention to this point, some of the 
best energies of the church have been thrown 
away. Persons in all diseases, and in all 
stages of disease, have been eagerly sought out 
with the benevolent intention of showing them 
the way to heaven ; while the healthful inmates 
of the same dwelling have been left to pursue 



34 VISITATION OF THE SICK. 

their own path to hell without one word of 
entreaty or warning. 

In many instances the visitation of the sick 
is perfectly useless. It is almost always so in 
fevers and diseases connected with delirium ; 
and in cases where delirium is not apparent, 
there is often mental imbecility. I have at- 
tended persons in malignant fevers, who seemed 
perfectly conscious at the time, and exceedingly 
thankful for my visits, but who, on recovery, 
had not the slightest recollection of any thing 
that had taken place. 

My design, in these remarks, is not to dis- 
courage attention to the sick, or in the slightest 
degree to justify any in neglecting them, but 
to show that the best season for labour is not 
that which is generally selected, and that time 
lost in health can seldom be redeemed in sick- 
ness. 

There are many, who, when conscience tells 
them that they ought to do something for the 
salvation of their unconverted neighbors, post- 
pone their efforts for affliction to prepare the 
way. The cares of life, they think, may then 
more readily be laid aside, and the attention 
exclusively directed to the things of eternity. 



SPIRITS IN PRISON. 35 

And moreover, at such a time, the call of a 
Christian neighbour for the express purpose of 
religious conversation will not be thought in- 
trusive. *^ How glad I should be for my hus- 
band to be seriously ill ! " said a poor woman 
one day, greatly to my surprise. On my asking 
a reason for so strange a wish, she replied, **0 
Sir, if he were ill, somebody would come and 
talk to him about his soul.'' The woman was 
too ignorant to have intended it as a personal 
rebuke ; but may it not be the case, that while 
we account it a matter of imperative obligation 
to preach Christ to the sick and dying, we 
rarely say a word about him to those who need 
it not less than they ? 

Whatever may be its causej the silence of 
Christians is the undoing of thousands. It may 
be indolence, it may be timidity, it may be mis- 
taken affection, it may be mere procrastination 
without any assignable reason ; but its results 
are the same, and those results are tremendous 
beyond description. 

If we could get near enough to the prison- 
house of souls, 1 Pet. iii. 19, to listen to what 
is passing there, we should overhear conversa- 
tions which would make our ears to tingle. It 



36 SPIRITS IN PRISON. 

is not improbable that our names are there 
associated with cursing and bitterness, and that 
the ruin of souls is ascribed to our negligence. 
We should hear one saying to his fellow-suf- 
ferer, " I had a Christian neighbour who lived 
next door to me eighteen years. He knew that 
I was regardless of religion, that I seldom 
attended public w^orship, and that I often made 
the holy day of the Lord a season of worldly 
pleasure, but he never reproved my sin. To 
his silence, I may trace my ruin. I remember 
the turning point in my life : it was the morn- 
ing of a bright and beautiful day. A friend had 
invited me to an excursion. His chaise drove 
off with us at the moment m.y neighbour was 
leaving his door to go to the house of God. I 
would then have given the world to accompany 
him, but I had gone too far to retreat. How 
well I remember all that passed on that occa- 
sion ! Oh, what a curse is memory now ! God 
has set my sins * in order ' before mine eyes. 
There they are, in all their horrible minuteness 
of circumstance; not a single aggravation is 
forgotten. My thoughts, all that day, ran on 
the account to which I should certainly be called 
the next morning. I pondered over the best 



SPIRITS IN PRISON. 37 

excuses that my proud heart, or my vain im- 
agination, could suggest. One was close con- 
finement daring the week, and the necessity of 
occasional recreation for the benefit of my 
health. Another, that the Sabbath was made 
for man, and not man for the Sabbath. A third, 
(and it was this that gave me greater relief than 
either,) that it was only for once, that I never 
intended to do so again. Miserable was that 
day to me, and it was followed by a sleepless 
night. Conscience would not suffer me to 
slumber. But that was the last time conscience 
ever disturbed my rest. Monday morning came. 
My answers were ready. I prepared myself 
for the dreaded interview, and washed it over. 
Had my neighbour then treated me with affec- 
tionate fidelity, I had never gone on a Sunday's 
excursion again. I had already resolved that it 
should be the last time, and I w^anted an op- 
portunity of saying so. Judge then my aston- 
ishment, w- hen I found that the religious friend, 
in whose eyes I had fancied myself degraded for 
ever, made not the slightest allusion to the 
manner in which I had passed the previous 
da}^ ! His silence, I unhappily regarded as the 
sanction of my sin. He was a kind neighbour, 

B 



38 THE LOST NEIGHBOUR. 

and a good man, and I could not imagine that 
he would see my soul in peril without inform- 
ing me. Fortified by his indifference, I reached 
the conclusion which has satisfied thousands. I 
thought religion good, but not indispensable. 
I regarded it as a thing about which every one 
should be fully persuaded in his own mind, and 
not make himself a busybody in other men's 
matters. I felt assured that with it my neigh- 
bour would go to heaven, and almost as certain 
that I should find my way thither without it. 
His conduct seemed to justify my opinion. For 
his habitual silence, I could account in no other 
way. During the lingering illness which 
brought my body to the grave, and my soul to 
this place of torment, there was hardly a day 
when I was not the subject of his kind inquiries. 
Yet not one word did he say about the claims 
of Christ, or the guilt and danger of neglecting 
the great salvation. The consequence is, that 
here I am, and here I must stay for ever. 
Who can lie down in everlasting burnings ? 
But I have no other bed. Thanks to my 
Christian neighbour, for this awful doom ! Had 
he been faithful to my soul, and warned me of 
the wrath to come, never had I been here." 



THE LOST HUSBAND. 39 

" I, too,'' rejoins his companion in misery, 
*' once had a religious friend, and that friend 
was my wife. I loved her with the tenderest 
affection, and believed that her love was no less 
tender than my ov^^n. Her piety was unques- 
tioned. As she valued the ordinances of God, 
I constantly accompanied her to the sanctuary. 
At her request, I read prayers every morning 
and evening with our assembled household. It 
pleased her, and that was enough for me, for it 
was the study of my life to meet her views and 
anticipate her wishes. I heard her speak to 
others about Christ, and conversion, and eterni- 
ty ; but of these things she said not one word 
to me in a manner which indicated a suspicion 
that matters between my soul and God needed 
the slightest alteration. I gave myself credit 
for the piety which she evidently accorded me ; 
and though I never went so far as to make a 
public profession of religion, I thought myself 
in a much better condition for doing so than 
many who did. Thus, life gently glided on till 
the illness overtook me of which I died. She 
then watched my bed with unwearied attention, 
spoke of the valley of the shadow of death, and 
of fearing no evil there, but never asked me on 



40 THE LOST CHILD. 

what I was resting my hope for eternity. She 
took it for granted that I was right, and I 
thought so too. But she might have known 
that experimental religion never had charms 
for me, and that beneath an irreproachable 
character before men, I had but ill concealed a 
heart at enmity with God ; she might have 
known this, and must have known it, had it 
not been that affection blinded her judgment ; 
for there was nothing in me to warrant a belief 
that I had passed from death unto life. My 
virtues were those which a heathen might have 
practised, and remained a heathen still ; and 
such a religion as miine might have existed had 
Christ never died. And thus I left the world. 
My last mortal recollection is that my dear wife 
kissed my cold cheek, and whispered in my ear, 
* Farewell, my love, till we meet in heaven.' 
Meet in heaven ? Never ! If we meet, it will 
not be there." 

''And I," adds a third, '' am another victim 
of kindness ; my parents loved me too tenderly 
to permit my salvation. I once was most fear- 
fully alarmed about my soul ; but they told me 
to beware of excitement, for it would injure my 
health : they cautioned me against enthusiastic 



CLAIMS OF THE LIVING. 41 

views of religion, and assured me that one so 
moral and virtuous had nothing to fear. I 
hearkened to their counsels ; my convictions 
died away and never troubled me again. 
Through all the long months when consump- 
tion was running its course, I cherished the 
hope of recovery ; not a word was said to unde- 
ceive me, till I awoke and found myself here. 
* The harvest is past, the summer is over, and 
I am not saved.' " 

I write not thus to awaken unavailing regrets. 
The dead are gone ; they are beyond the reach 
of our repentance and our pra3'^ers : but the 
consciousness of having been accessories to 
their damnation may have a beneficial influ- 
ence ; it may teach us how to offer the prayer 
ofDavid, when he thought of the murdered Uriah, 
*' Deliver m.e from blood-guiltiness, God, thou 
God of my salvation," Psalm li. 14. It may do 
more : the doom of all the ungodly is not yet 
sealed. The man who was once within your 
reach is beyond it now ; but he has left five 
brethren at home : the only amends you can 
make to him is to warn them. Gladly w^ould 
he send a messenger from hell to do it, but he 
cannot ; there is a great gulf between, Luke 



42 CLAIMS OF THE LIVING. 

xvi. 19 — 31. But that which he cannot do, you 
may accomplish. ; you may prevent their going 
to that place of torment. Try. 

It may be that these remarks will fall into the 
hands of one w^hose Sabbath-breaking neigh- 
bour, or whose unconverted husband, or whose 
consumptive child, is yet alive. Is it so? Go, 
then, reader, and tell him of his danger : tell 
him now, lest to-morrow it should be too late. 
Assure him of the necessity of salvation, and of 
the certainty of Christ's willingness to save, to 
save even him. You may yet render it impos- 
sible for him to lay his ruin to your charge ; 
yea, more than this — you may deliver his soul 
from death. ^^ Go, and the Lord be w^ith thee !" 
If you are afraid to tell him your fears, or know 
not how to express them, take this book in your 
hand, and ask him to read it : it may be, he will 
see his own likeness. If he should, assure him 
that the sketch is a faithful one, that the author 
intended him to see it, and prepared it for him, 
cherishing the hope that this image of his de- 
formity would haunt him as a spectre, until he 
should become a new creature in Christ Jesus. 

Conclusions involving responsibility so terrific 
as that which I have attempted to describe. 



SCHOLASTIC SUBTLETIES. 



43 



have been evaded by all the devices which in- 
genuity can furnish, or in which an uneas}^ con- 
science can promise itself repose. But conceal 
or mystify the awful fact as we may, souls are 
lost which might have been saved had the ser- 
vants of Christ obeyed his orders. Divine 
sovereignty, the decrees of God, and '^ the elec- 
tion of grace," are not the things which stand in 
the way of the world's conversion : '' Have I 
any pleasure at all that the wicked should die ? 
saith the Lord God ; and not that he should re- 
turn from his ways and live ?" Ezek. xviii. 23. 

Peter knew nothing of the subtleties of the 
schools, but he was filled with the Holy Ghost 
when he said, " Him, being delivered by the 
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, 
ye have taken, and by wicked hands have cru- 
cified and slain," Acts ii. 23. In his estimation. 
Divine foreknowledge afforded no excuse for hu- 
man wickedness. And when the church re- 
sumes the zeal and devotedness of primitive 
times, it seems not unlikely that more attention 
than at present will be paid to inspired authori- 
ty, and less deference be rendered to human 
systems of theology. 

Let none say, Had we warned of their dan- 



44 A PARABLE. 

ger the souls which are now lost, the warning 
would have been unsuccessful. We have no 
right to cherish such a persuasion, and in no re- 
lation but this would it be tolerated for one mo- 
ment. To show the justice of this assertion, 
suppose the following case : 

Some rebels have been convicted of high- 
treason : the question of their guilt admits of no 
doubt, and if any deserve death for rebellion 
they do. The king, whose authority they had 
attempted to subvert, had been their personal 
friend, and had loaded them with favours : their 
treachery, therefore, had all the aggravation of 
the basest ingratitude : their condemnation ex- 
cites no surprise ; it was expected by every 
body. The fatal morning arrives, and crowds 
assemble to witness their execution : there is 
but one sentiment as to the atrocity of their 
crime, and no one imagines that their lives 
will be spared. The monarch, however, resolves 
to exercise his prerogative of mercy : as an act 
of pure sovereignty, he determines not only to 
spare, but on certain conditions, to offer them 
a full pardon. A great while before it is day, 
every thing is arranged for carrying into effect 
his gracious purpose : the necessary document 



A PAKABLE. 45 

is no sooner prepared than it is pnt into the 
hands of one of the attendants in waiting, who 
is informed of its contents, and instructed to 
proceed on the errand of mercy with all possible 
despatch. There is time, abundant time for 
him to reach the place of intended execution 
before the fatal moment ; but he loiters on the 
way. Who w^ould imagine the charge with 
w^hich he is intrusted ? At length he arrives, 
but is just too late : the drop has fallen — the 
last struggle is over — the culprits have entered 
eternity ! Let the crowd be told of his cruel 
indolence, and what would they sa}^ ? The 
very men w^ho thought the sentence a righteous 
one would charge him with being a murderer. 
Suppose that, to evade the imputation, he 
should unfold his commission, and say, '* I deny 
it to be a pardon, it is only the offer of one, and 
it is such an offer as w^ould not have been 
accepted ; it contains some very humiliating 
conditions : the rebels, in order to be spared, 
w^ere to make a full confession of their guilt ; 
they were to go through the streets of the city, 
and to the gates of the palace, wath ropes round 
their necks, acknowledging the justice of their 
original sentence, and ascribing the preserva- 



46 K PARABLE. 

tion of their lives to the royal clemency of him 
whose government they had attempted to sub- 
vert. I knew the men ; I was perfectly assur- 
ed that they would never submit to such terms 
as these, and therefore I thought it of little con- 
sequence w^hether I brought the document or 
not. On the whole, I regret that I came too 
late ; but had I been earlier the result would 
have been the same." Can we imagine that 
the croAvd would have patience to listen to 
such a defence ? or, having heard it, would 
think it satisfactory ? A thousand voices 
w^ould exclaim, " Wretch I murderer ! tell us 
not what those men would not have been wil- 
ling to do ; you were sent to give them an 
opportunity of being willing to do it ; and as 
they lost that opportunity through your negli- 
gence, they owe their death to you." Should 
he escape being torn in pieces on the spot, 
what account would he give to the king who 
sent him ? Would he dare to insinuate that if 
the offer of mercy had been made in sincerity, 
it would have been expressed in different terms, 
and committed to a more trustworthy mes- 
senger ? 

" If thou forbear to deliver them that are 



THE HIDDEN LEDGEH. 47 

drawn unto death, and those that are ready to 
be slain ; if thou sayest, Behokl, we knew it 
not ; doth not He that pondereth the heart con- 
sider it ? and He that keepeth thy soul, doth not 
He know it ? and shall not He render to every 
man according to his works ? " Prov. xxiv. 
11,12. 

A fearful rendering that will be to many who 
think not so. Amidst all the efforts which 
have been made to send forth missionaries and 
to translate the Scriptures into unknown 
tongues, few are the Christians who contribute 
as large a sum for the conversion of the world 
as is wrung from them in the shape of rates 
and taxes ; and the man w-ho gives to the ser- 
vice of God the same amount that he pays for 
the rental of his house is thought a prodigy of 
benevolence. Many a Christian tradesman 
would rather burn his books than show them 
to the Lord Jesus Christ ; but he who espied 
Nathaniel under the fig-tree, John i. 48, has 
seen them already, and will render to every 
man according to his works. A scale of 
expenditure which pampers selfishness and 
gives benevolence the crumbs, must necessarily 
grieve the good spirit of God, and bring lean- 
ness into the souk 



48 UNCONVERTED SERVANTS. 

But, after all, it is not here that the worst 
defect is found. Mean as the contributions of 
Christians in general to the treasury of God 
undoubtedly are, wonders would be accom- 
plished if those contributions were given con- 
sistently ; but they are not : the man bestows 
his guinea to save the heathen, but not a breath 
will he spend to save his friend or his servant, 
perhaps we may add, his wife or his child. 

There are thousands of unconverted servants 
living in Christian households, for whose salva- 
tion not one determined effort has ever been 
made. Attendance at public worship and fam- 
ily prayer has been thought sufficient, and, in 
the absence of all other instrumentality, reli- 
gious masters and mistresses have felicitated 
themselves on having done their duty : they 
have even thought that the commendation 
bestowed on Abraham would not be withholden 
from them: "I know him that he will com- 
mand his children and his household after him, 
and they shall keep the way of the Lord," 
Gen. xviii. 19. 

I was once called to visit in her last illness 
a young woman of good understanding, who 
had lived three years in a professedly Chris- 



POPULAR IGNORANCE. 49 

lian family, and had all that time attended pub- 
lic and domestic worship as part of her agree- 
ment, but who did not know that she had a 
soul, or that Jesus Christ came into the world 
to save sinners ; her mistress had never given 
her that information. She w^ent when others 
went, knelt when others knelt, heard all, and 
understood nothing : not one word of all the 
sermons and prayers she had attended had fas- 
tened on her mind, or excited a single inquiry. 
And it is by no means unlikely that the reader 
who thinks this statement improbable, would 
find within his immediate circle specimens of 
ignorance quite as appalling, if he would but 
give himself the trouble to search them out. 

A very large portion of truth from the pulpit 
falls unheeded, because even the plainest lan- 
guage is not generally understood. Persons 
w^ho have not made it a subject of inquiry 
would hardly believe the extent of popular 
ignorance as to the meaning of many words 
most commonly used in preaching the gospel. 
*•' Salvation," " redemption," " conversion," 
"atonement," "justification," " sanctification," 
and a hundred others of the same order, and 
without which we could not preach at all, con- 



50 POPULAU IGNORANCE, ETC. 

vey to the minds of multitudes no distinct, no 
definite impressions : tliey think of them as 
something belonging to religion, and not to 
common life, and that is all they know, or care 
to know, about the matter. And this deplora- 
ble ignorance is not confined to those whom we 
usually regard as uneducated. It prevails, to a 
fearful extent, among all classes, and includes 
not a few who pride themselves on their literary 
attainments. Some of oar most popular writers 
have betrayed a lack of Christian knowledge 
which would disgrace a Sunday-school child of 
ten years old. 

How can this difficulty be met ? It never 
can be reached from the pulpit : to meet it 
there we mast confine all our lessons to the 
mere alphabet of Christianity. Familiar con- 
versation is the only thing which can bring 
home the plainest truths to minds so uninform- 
ed ; and unlil this be undertaken as a matter of 
serious, personal obligation before God, by all 
who love the Lord Jesus Christ, their neighbours 
will cooiinue to perish in their sins, and to 
them will belong the guilt of being accessories 
to their ruin. 



CHAPTER IIL 

With all humility and tenderness, I would 
submit to my dear and honoured brethren in 
the ministry the question, Whether there must 
not be something radically wrong in that 
preaching, to w^hich the unconverted can ap- 
provingly listen, year after year, and remain in 
their sins. 

It may, perhaps, be replied, that the same 
event happened to Ezekiel, w^bose fidelity none 
will presume to question. ^' They come unto 
thee," saith the Lord to that prophet, " as the 
people Cometh, and they sit before thee as my 
people, and they hear thy v/ords, but they will 
not do them. And lo ! thou art unto them as 
a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant 
voice and can play well on an instrument ; 
for they hear thy w^ords, but they do them not," 
Ezek. xxxiii. 31, 32. 

The relevancy of this passage to the case 
under consideration is, however, destroyed by 
the context. The men, who, as a matter of 



52 MINISTERIAL FIDELITY. 

necessity or courtesy, listened to the message, 
hated the prophet who brought it: they spoke 
against him '*by the walls and in the doors of 
the houses," verse 30. The case of Ezekiel, 
then, after all, was no exception to the general 
rule. Like Moses, and Jeremiah, and Daniel, 
and a host of holy men, " of whom the world 
w^as not worthy," who '' wandered in deserts 
and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the 
earth," Heb. xi. 38, he found it impossible to 
serve God faithfully without provoking censure, 
and was included by Stephen in his sw^eeping 
challenge to the rulers of the Jews — "Which 
of the prophets have not your fathers perse- 
cuted ? " Acts vii. 52. 

We may boast of the enlightened age in 
w^hich we live ; but we deceive ourselves if we 
imagine that the w^orld is yet so changed as to 
render obsolete the caution of our Lord to his 
disciples, — " Wo unto you when all men shall 
speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the 
false prophets," Luke vi. 26. 

The commendation of an unconverted hearer 
is very questionable praise. It is possible, in- 
deed, that the man may have information enough 
to acknowledge as truth the evidence of his 



MINISTERIAL FIDELITY. 53 

condemnation, or honesty enough to give us 
credit for the sincerity of our ministrations ; but 
it is far more likely that he endures our ser- 
mons, because they press but lightly on his 
conscience ; because we afford him so many 
opportunities of evading our appeals ; or be- 
cause we invariably suffer him to hide himself 
in the crowd, and when we describe the man 
for vrhom there is no escape, because he neg- 
lects the great salvation, Heb. ii. 3, we carefully 
guard against ever}^ thing like personality, lest 
he should possibly imagine that we mean him. 

But we do mean him, or ought to mean him, 
and the man will never be saved till he knows 
it. Should he not find it out from our public 
discourses, let us see him at home, and tell him 
so. We have often indirectly described his 
character, but still he has very little notion that 
the description applies to himself: we must re- 
move from his mind all misapprehension, and 
with boldness, yet with affection and tenderness, 
say, " Thou art the man." 

Is it demanded, Who can do this? I reply, 
That servant of Christ, who is found " warning 
every man, and teaching every man, in all wis- 
dom," that he "may present every man per- 

E* 



54 MINISTERIAL FIDELITY. 

feet in Christ Jesus," Col. i. 28. The preacher 
who wishes to save himself and them that hear 
him, 1 Tim. iv. 16, must thus be made all things 
to all men, that he may by all means save some, 
1 Cor. ix. 22. If sinners will take warning in 
the ordinary v\^ay, our work will be so much the 
lighter ; but if public exhortations fail to pro- 
duce the effect desired, we must adopt other 
methods, lest any one fail of the grace of God, 
Heb. xii. lo. 

And under the influence of those powerful 
views of eternity which every man of God may 
be expected to cherish, it will, after all, be no 
very difficult matter to say to an unconverted 
hearer, " My friend, I have great heaviness and 
continual sorrow of heart on your account. You 
have now been hearing me a Vv^hole year, and 
I see no proof that you have been benefited by 
my labours. Have I bestowed upon j^ou labour 
in vain ? What more can I do to lead you to 
Christ ? I must soon give an account to God 
of my watchfulness for the salvation of your 
soul: I want to do it with joy, and not with 
grief: for that would be unprofitable for you, 
Heb. xiii. 17. Must I tell him, that though I 
w^arned you, you would not hearken? — that, 



LAY AGENCY. 55 

though I entreated you, j^ou would not comply ? 
— that, though I besought you by the tender 
mercies of God to present your body a living 
sacrifice, holy and acceptable, that * reasonable 
service,^ Rom. xii. 1, you refused to render him, 
and strangely determined to die in your sins, 
notwithstanding all that infinite mercy had done 
for your redemption and conversion ? " 

If we are not prepared thus to fight at close 
quarters, are we good soldiers of Jesus Christ ? 
2 Tim. ii. 3. If we cannot thus commend our- 
selves to every man's conscience in the sight of 
God, are we fit for our work ? are we making 
full proof of our ministry ? It was thus that 
the apostles laboured ; Acts xx. 20 ; 2 Cor. iv. 
2 ; 1 Thess ii. 11, 12 ; 2 Tim. iv. 5 ; and if we 
aspire to their successes, we must emulate their 
toils. 

But whatever may be the piety and devoted- 
ness of the ministers of the Gospel, the world 
will remain unsaved while the conversion of 
sinners is left to them. The mightiest armies 
would never have subdued a single province, 
had their officers been the only fighting men : 
it was theirs to direct the battle, but victory de- 
pended on the number, and training, and valour 



56 LAY AGENCY 

of the mnin body, rank and file. And never, 
until private Christians become effective men, 
will the church of the living God look ''* forth 
as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the 
sun, and terrible as an arm^r with banner?." 

When the leaven of popery is thoroughly' 
purged away, the v;hole body of the faithful 
will awake to the fact that the communication 
of spiritual blessings is not the exclusive pre- 
rogative of a privileged order. It was not to 
bishops and deacons alone, but to all the elect 
strano'ers who were scattered throus^hout Pon- 
tins, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 
whatever might be their worldly circumstances, 
or ecclesiastical appointments, that Peter said, 
" Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priest- 
hood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye 
should show forth the praises of him who hath 
called you out of darkness into his marvellous 
light," 1 Pet. ii. 9. 

The church of modern times has never yet 
called into action one fiftieth part of the strength 
which it really possesses. Among its members 
there are hundreds, there are thousands, who 
have done nothing for Christ ; they have never 
saved one soul from death, and no marvel, for 



PERSONAL EFFORT.. 67 

they have never made the attempt ; then' only 
notion of doing good has been to perform it by 
proxy; a donation, or annual subscription, to 
some public society for the spread of the Gos- 
pel, has been the total amount of their efforts 
for the conversion of the world : it seems never 
to have entered their thoughts that Christ has 
claims upon them for services which they can 
never perform by deputy, and that nothing can 
absolve them from personal obligation to bring 
sinners to repentance. 

It was not thus that the ancient church 
achieved its triumphs. " Salute the beloved 
Persis, which laboured much in the Lord," 
Eom. xvi. 12 ; '' and I entreat thee, true yoke- 
fellow, help these women which laboured with 
me in the Gospel, w^ith Clement also, and with 
other of my fellow-labourers, whose names are in 
the book of life," Phil. iv. 8, are instructions 
which clearly indicate the comprehensive yet 
individual character of that cooperation which 
sustained and cheered an apostle, while from 
Jerusalem and round about unto Illyricum, he 
fully preached the gospel of Christ, Rom. xv. 
19. The holy women, whose devoted exertions 
he mentions with so much approbation, were 



58 PRIMITIVE ZEAL. 

forbidden to speak in the public assembly, 
1 Cor. xiv. 34, 35, but they found methods of 
glorifying God in the domestic circle, and from 
house to house. Eternity alone will reveal the 
extent of their success. 

A fine example of the working of this prim- 
itive S3rstem is found in the instance of Aquila 
and his wik Priscilla. By occupation they 
were tent-makers. An intimate acquaintance 
with the apostle of the Gentiles had given them 
advantages which few could boast, and which 
some would have been glad to monopolize. In 
the synagogue, at Ephesus, they met v/ilh an 
eloquent man, who was mighty in the Scrip- 
tures, but who Lnev/ only the baptism of John: 
they invited him home, and '^ expounded unto 
him tlie way of God more perlbctly." The 
consequence was, that Apoliori v;ent forth to 
wafer the enclosureo whicii Paul had planied : 
talents which otherwise would have been lost 
to the church, were so employed that he " helped 
them much who had believed through grace, for 
he mightily convinced the Jews, and that pub- 
licl}^ shov/ing by the Scriptures that Jesus was 
Christ," Acts xviii. 28. 

These remarks are not intended to weaken 



DIVISION OF LABOUR. 59 

the claims of religions institutions to pecaniary 
aid, nor are they designed to insinuate that the 
authority of the pastoral office is to be merged 
in the general effort of the whole church to 
bring sinners to God. It was the '' rule " of an 
apostle to receive, from churches already orgaa- 
ized, the pecuniary assistance by \Yhich he w^as 
Enabled to preach the Gospel in the regions 
beyond them, 2 Cor. x. 15, 16 ; and his instruc- 
tions imply, not only a division of labour, but a 
distinctness of instrumentality. '^ Having then 
gifts, differing according to the grace that is 
given to us, w'hether prophecy, let us prophesy 
according to the proportion of faith ; or ministry, 
let us w^ait on our ministering ; or lie that 
teacheth, on teaching ; or he that exhorteth, on 
exhortation ; he that giveth, let him do it with 
simplicity ; he that ruleth, with diligence ; he 
that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness," Eom. 
xii. 6 — 8. Thus, in the primitive churches, the 
diversified " gifts " of the w^hole body of the 
faithful found room for their appropriate exercise 
without intrenching on '' another man's line of 
things :" and, with a moderate share of v/isdom, 
the same thing mxay still be accomplished : each 
may work distinctly, and all may work unitedly. 



60 MODERN APPLIANCES. 

The direction with which the apostle concludes 
the instructions already quoted — "Let love be 
without dissimulation" — is a rule which will 
enable us to conduct the most extensive and 
multifarious operations, without even the possi- 
bility of clashing, or the slightest approach to 
any thing like disorder. Thus, '' without mur- 
murings or disputings," the members of the 
church at Philippi held forth the word of life, 
and shone as lights in the world, '' in the midst 
of a crooked and perverse nation," Phil. ii. 15, 
and of their brethren at Thessalonica was borne 
this high and honourable testimony — "From 
you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only 
in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every 
place," 1 Thess. i. 8. 

It will surely not be pretended that opportu- 
nities of usefulness are less frequent, or less 
inviting, now, than they were in apostolic days. 
On the contrary, we have means and facilities 
of holy enterprise with which the primitive 
Christians were not indulged, and of which 
they were unable to form a conception ; and the 
highest amount of peril to which we may 
expose ourselves, in provoking the hatred of the 
world, bears not a comparison with the risk 



DIVERSITIES OF EMPLOYMENT. 61 

which they incurred who thought their trials 
light so long as they had not " resisted unto 
blood," Heb. xii. 4, and who, when called to 
that last and highest act of discipleship, counted 
not their lives dear unto them, so that they 
might finish their course with joy, Acts xx. 24. 
Murdered by the savages of Erromanga, the 
names of Williams and Harris will go down to 
posterity, like those of Stephen and James the 
brother of John, crowned with the honours of 
martyrdom ; but in general, if our missionaries 
go forth at the hazard of their lives, it is from 
other causes than ''perils by the heathen." In 
many instances, the objects of their compassion 
are waiting to welcome them to their shores ; 
and, from more quarters than, according to the 
present rate of exertion, can possibly receive 
attention, the prayer of the man of Macedonia 
floats on the breeze — "Come over and help 
us." 

The modes of useful em.ployment, moreover, 
are now so diversified as to embrace all possible 
varieties of talent and opportunity, so that no 
disciple of Christ has a right to say, " I pray 
thee, have me excused." As when the ancient 
idolaters made cakes for the queen of heaven, 



62 INEFFECTUAL PRAYER. 

they found something for every one to do, so 
may we : the children may gather wood, and 
the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead 
their dough, Jer. vii. 18 : the old and the young, 
the rich and the poor, the learned and the illit- 
erate, may here make common cause, and be- 
come ** fellow-helpers to the truth," 3 John, 8. 

Yet, notwithstanding all the facilities with 
which Providence has favoured us, many who 
pass for Christians content themselves with 
praying for the conversion of the world, while 
they neglect the only instrumentality by which 
it can be accomplished. The angels of heaven 
will never become pastors of churches or mis- 
sionaries to the heathen : '* we have this treasure 
in earthen vessels," 2 Cor. iv. 7 ; and if the 
nations are to have the treasure, we must not 
only supply the vessels which contain it, but 
we must keep them in repair. 

To ask that God would bring the world to 
the faith of Christ, while we know that " faith 
Cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of 
God," Rom. X. 17; and moreover, that the mil- 
lions have no word of God to hear, and, there- 
fore, that there is nothing for Divine agency to 
work upon, is (if we at the same time withhold 



SPIRITUAL HUSBANDRY. 63 

from them the words whereby they may he 
saved) but to stultify our own prayers. As well 
may we ask for the showers and sunshine of 
heaven to bring on the harvest where the fallow 
ground remains unbroken and unsown : the 
showers and the sunshine may come, but no 
harvest will follow. 

It becomes, then, a serious question, Are we 
putting forth an agency which God can bless ? 
All abstract reasoning concerning his power is 
irrelevant. As a mere question of almightiness, 
we know that God can create the " herb bear- 
ing seed," and grain for the use of man, with- 
out the labours of the husbandman : he did so 
in the first instance, before there was a human 
being to aid his plans or witness his operations ; 
but has he done so since man was made to till 
the ground ? The question requires no answer. 
He gives us ** fruitful seasons" still, *' filling 
our hearts with food and gladness," Acts xiv. 
17 ; but his bounties need the labour, the fore- 
cast, and the constant industry of man, in order 
to their production. The husbandman, who 
laboureth first, is partaker of the fruits : he 
must plough the ground and sow the seed, or 
he will never reap the harvest, 2 Tim. ii. 6. 



64 SPIRITUAL HUSBANDRY. 

Between the laws of the natural and those of 
the spiritual world there is an analogy more 
strict than some theological notions would lead 
us to suppose. Faith, as we have seen, comes 
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God : 
the word must be heard in order to accomplish 
its design ; and where it is unheard, or some- 
thing else is heard in its stead, there the bles- 
sing of Heaven neither will nor can attend it. 

As there are certain conditions of seed in 
which it cannot vegetate, so there are certain 
conditions of the word in which it cannot issue 
in eternal life. As the germinating principle 
in grain may be destroyed by mildew, damp, or 
vermin, and the finest wheat become fit only for 
the dunghill, the message of mercy from Heaven 
may be so corrupted by the devices of men as 
to become a doctrine of devils, 1 Tim. iv. 1; 
the truth of God may be changed into a lie, 
Eom, i. 25 ; his grace may be turned into las- 
civiousness, Jude 4; and a preacher may so 
pervert the Gospel of Christ, even by his mis- 
representation of institutions unquestionably di- 
vine, that Paul would pronounce him accursed, 
Gal. i. 8, 9. '' Do men gather grapes of thorns, 
or figs of thistles ?" But they may do both, 



SPIRITUAL HUSBANDRY. 65 

before the preaching of legal justification, and 
sacramental grace, will convert souls to God. 

All the genial influences of rain, and dew, 
and sunshine, will never cause that seed to 
vegetate of which the vital germ has perished ; 
and though Jehovah is as the dew unto Israel, 
Hos. xiv. 5, and gracious influences '^ come 
down like rain upon the mown grass, as show- 
ers that water the earth," Psa. Ixxii. 6, no bles- 
sing will arise where truth has lost its vitality. 
That vitality lost, it is truth no more, as grain 
is seed no longer when its germinating property 
is destroyed. 

Divine truth, in its integrity, has a vitality, 
an inherent principle of life, of w^hich fruit unto 
life eternal is but the natural result. Thus, our 
blessed Lord, addressing some of his disciples 
who murmured at him and were offended at his 
doctrine, said, " The words that I speak unto 
you, they are spirit, and they are life," John 
V.63. 

If we set our hearts on occupying the field of 
the world to cultivate it for God, w^e should 
carefully ascertain whether that which we have 
is really ** the seed of the kingdom." Its gen- 
uineness admits of an easy test. Does it spring, 



66 SPIRITUAL HUSBANDRY. 

and grow, and produce, first the blade, and then 
the ear, and after that the full corn in the ear? 
Or, to speak parables no longer, are our labours 
for God eminently distinguished by the conver- 
sion of souls ? This is the purpose for which 
God sent his truth to our world ; and if it 
answers not that purpose, '' it is become of none 
effect," Should any question the correctness 
of this assertion, I would remind them that in a 
darker dispensation than ours, when only a 
small portion of Divine revelation had been 
given to the church, such was even then its 
design, and enough was there to secure that 
end. The law of the Lord was perfect, con- 
verting the soul ; the testimony of the Lord was 
sure, making wise the simple, Psa. xix. 7. 

And wherever that truth retains its purity, it 
retains its power ; heavenly influences are wait- 
ing to bless, it, and God deaiands that his ser- 
vants shall so obey his orders, and execute his 
will, as to place the world in a condition to 
receive and enjoy his measureless benediction. 
'' Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that 
there may be meat in my house ; and prove me 
now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will 
not open you the windows of heaven, and pour 



SPIRITUAL HUSBANDRy. 67 

you out a blessing that there shall not be room 
enough to receive it," Mai. iii. 10: *'for as the 
rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, 
and returneth not thither, but watereth the 
earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that 
it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the 
eater : so shall my word be that goeth forth out 
of my mouth : it shall not return unto me void, 
but it shall accomplish that which I please, and 
it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it," 
Isa.lv. 10, 11. 

But, to revert to the figure recently employed, 
the best seed will not grow while it remains ia 
the granary. Would we raise a harvest for 
God ? We must break up the fallow ground, 
and carry forth the seed of the kingdom from 
our closets and depositories, and scatter it 
abroad, where it may bring forth much fruit. 

Should the result, after all, disappoint us, it 
behooves us, as wise husbandmen, to ascertain 
the cause. Is the fault in the seed, or in the 
soil, in the seasons, or in our mode of culture? 
The seasons are such as God promised they 
should be, and, every year since the beginning 
of the world, there have been both seed-time 
and harvest ; and the soil, whatever its defects 



68 CAN GOD BLESS OUR EFFORTS ? 

may be, is no worse than that which has yielded 
many a crop in former times — in some thirty, 
in some sixty, and in some a hundred fold. If, 
therefore, we labour in vain, and spend our 
strength for nought, our seed must be bad, or 
our plans injudicious. 

There is one point, indeed, in which all anal- 
ogies drawn from nature completely fail. I refer 
now to the moral qualifications of the required hu- 
man agency. In the natural world, one event 
happens to all, Eccl. ii. 14: the sun rises on the 
evil and on the good, and the rain descends on 
the just and on the unjust. Matt. v. 45. The 
swearer, the drunkard, the fornicator, or the 
atheist, may (if he will employ the same dili- 
gence of culture) reap as early and as large a 
harvest as his Christian neighbour; but the 
seed of the kingdom rarely vegetates when it 
falls from a polluted hand, and the most awful 
truths of God seldom produce any permanent 
impression when they go forth from feigned 
lips. '* The sacrifice of the wicked is an abom- 
ination to the Lord," Prov. xv. 8; their new 
moons, and their appointed feasts, his soul 
hateth, Isa. i. 14; and, by parity of reasoning, 
it majT" be shown that the imperfections and 



CAN GOD BLESS OUR EFFORTS ? 69 

weaknesses of real Christians are oftentimes a 
fearful hinderance in the way of the Gospel. 

It may be devoutly questioned, whether in- 
deed God can extensively bless the efforts of his 
people until they are prepared to receive and 
improve the blessing which he designs to be- 
stow. The oaly limits of his power are those 
which are set by his own wisdom, holiness, 
goodness, and truth ; it is, therefore, no dispar- 
agement of his omnipotence to afhrm that he 
cannot lie, Titus i. 2, as it was no discredit to 
the miracles of Christ that on one occasion " he 
did not many mighty works there, because of 
their unbelief. Matt. xiii. 58. ^'He laid his 
hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them," 
(compare Mark vi. 5,) to show then» that his 
power was as great as ever ; upon only a few, 
to convince them that the hinderance was all 
their own. But few came, for few had faith to 
be healed ; but of those who did come, not one 
was refused. 

Something analogous to this may be seen in 
our churches now: a few are converted, that 
men may see that the hand of the Lord is not 
shortened that it cannot save ; and only a few, 
to teach his people that their iniquities have 



70 ARE WE PREPARED 

separated between them and their God, and 
their sins have hid his face from them, Isa. lix. 
1, 2. And, to carry the parallel yet further, it 
may be affirmed that if, notwithstanding the 
indifference and unbelief of those who ought to 
be the salt of the earth and the lights of the 
world, any sinner should desire salvation, he 
may have it. Should but one of a village, or 
one of a city, or one of a nation, offer in sincer- 
ity the prayer, '' Jesus, thou Son of David, have 
mercy on me," Jesus will come and heal him. 

Individual conversion, wherever it is seen, 
affords demonstrative evidence that the Lord is 
there. Let but the instances be multiplied, and 
then we have " times of refreshing," Acts iii. 
19. Suppose them to occur on the largest scale 
imaginable, and then we realize the visions of 
the latter day, when " the wolf and the lamb 
shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw 
like the bullock, and dust shall be the serpent's 
meat," Isa. Ixv. 25. All that shall in reality 
distinguish that day from our own will be, that 
the people shall be all righteous, chap. Ix. 21, 
and know the Lord from the least of them unto 
the greatest, Jer. xxxi. 34. 

And why are the triumphs of that day 



FOE HIS BLESSING ? 71 

delayed ? We need no new revelation from 
Heaven to inform us. The Lord is not slack 
concerning his promise ; his faithfulness re- 
mains unshaken, and his truth endures for ever 
and ever. But hinderances are found, on the 
part of Christians themselves, which are quite 
sufficient to account for all ; they must be 
awakened before others will be aroused ; the 
demon of unbelief must be cast out of the faith- 
ful, before they can exorcise the infidelity of 
the world. 

A vessel in ballast dares not spread her can- 
vass to the breeze as she can when deeply 
laden ; for the gale which would be propitious 
to the freighted merchantman, to her would 
bring destruction. There are some states of 
mind in which extensive usefulness would be- 
come a snare and a curse ; and we may imagine 
that God loves his saints too well to place them 
in such peril : we hardly can expect him to 
bless us above that which we are able to bear. 
If success would engender pride, if usefulness to 
the souls of others would induce us to neglect 
our own, we cannot wonder that nothing comes 
of our labours. 

These remarks gather force from the fact 



72 CONNEXION BETWEEN 

that special prayer has always preceded special 
blessings : prayer has prepared the way for 
those blessings ; it has placed the church in a 
condition to receive them. There was previ- 
ously no unwillingness on the part of God ; he 
was waiting to be gracious, waiting to have 
compassion, desiring not the death of sinners, 
but rather that they should turn from their 
wickedness, and live : but the church was not 
ready for the blessing, and therefore it was 
withheld. 

Brethren, are these things true ? Then you 
and I have been standing in the way of the 
world's conversion : sinners have been perish- 
ing around us, because we have been unfit to 
be intrusted with their salvation. With us it 
has been a question of success or non-success ; 
but to them it has been a question of life or 
death, of heaven or hell. It is true that not 
one has died in his sins, but has justly perished 
by his own iniquity ; but that is no excuse for 
us. Their guilt cannot justify our negligence. 
Only God knows how fearful will be the dis- 
closures of that day in which he will make in- 
quisition for the blood of the slain. 

Paul, on a memorable occasion, declared him- 



DEVOTEDNESS AND SUCCESS. 73 

self "pure from the blood of all men." But on 
what grounds? Because he had not shunned 
10 declare unto them all the counsel of God, and 
by the space of three years, had ceased not to 
warn every one, night and day, wnth tearsj 
Acts XX. 26, 27, 31. It is therefore but a fair 
inference, that had he been unfaithful to the 
truth, or remiss in its propagation, the blood of 
souls would have been laid to his account. 
Let not this assertion be charged with extrava- 
gance : it is but the testimony of God himself. 
*' Son of man, I have made thee a watchman 
unto the house of Israel, therefore hear the 
word at my mouth, and give them warning 
from me. When I say unto the wicked. Thou 
shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warn- 
ing, nor speakest to w^arn the wicked from his 
wicked way, to save his life, the same wicked 
man shall die in his iniquity ; but his blood 
will I require at thine hand," Ezek. iii. 17, 18. 
But if we aim at nothing beyond exemption 
from bloodguiltiness, we set our mark too low. 
A man who is no murderer, may yet be a very 
profitless member of the community. Tiie 
constant study of Christians, in relation to the 
unconverted, should be to turn themi from dark- 



74 OBJECTIONS DRAWN FROM 

ness unto light, and from the power of Satan 
unto God. This may be done, and Christ has 
sent them to do it. (Compare Acts xxvi. 18, 
with Matt. V. 16.) Let them attempt it in 
faith, and he will bless their efforts to that end. 
James v, 19, 20. 

There are some, however, who question, and 
even deny, the connexion between fidelity and 
success ; and they endeavour to prove their 
position by a reference to the personal ministry 
of our blessed Lord. They tell us that he 
' stretched forth his hands unto a disobedient 
and gainsaying people, Eom. x. 21 ; that it was 
his lamentation, *' Ye will not come to me that 
ye might have life," John v. 40 ; ^* How often 
would I have gathered thy children together, 
as a hen doth gather her brood under her 
wings, and ye would not;" Luke xiii. 34; and 
they refer us to the hundred and twenty disciples 
assembled at Jerusalem after his resurrection, 
Acts i. 15, as the whole product of his labours. 

Much might be said to prove that the popular 
notion of the unsuccessfulness of his personal 
ministry is incorrect ; that though only one 
hundred and twenty names were enrolled at 
Jerusalem, many, like Joseph of Arimathea, 



THE MINISTRY OF CHRIST. 75 

were his disciples, but secretly, for fear of the 
Jews, John xix. 38 ; that Paul mentions his 
having been *' seen of above five hundred 
brethren at once," 1 Cor. xv. 6, who, after all, 
were only chosen witnesses, selected, as it may 
be fairly presumed, from a much greater number, 
Acts X. 41 ; that his main object in going over 
the towns and cities of Judea, was to lay the 
foundation of his future kingdom, and to enable 
his servants, after his ascension to heaven, to 
challenge the disproof of their statements, while 
they affirmed of the facts which their testimony 
embraced, and from which they derived their 
authority, ^' These things were not done in a 
corner." But I wave all these considerations, 
and meet the objection as it stands. 

Admit that the hundred and twenty, and 
those of their former companions who had 
*' fallen asleep," were the only fruits of his 
toils, yet will the total result present an average 
amiount of usefulness with which the successes 
of few of his servants will bear a comparison. 
Here would be a soul for every Sabbath of his 
public life. Rare, indeed, have been the 
instances in which his most favored disciples 
have been honoured with equal success. 



76 OBJECTIONS DRAWN FROM 

I confess that I write these remarks with a 
trembling hand. There seems something bor- 
dering on the profane in an attempt to measure 
our success with his. If the Socinian hypothe- 
sis were correct, and he came only as a teacher 
sent from God, a man of like passions with our- 
selves, to show unto us the way of salvation, the 
comparison would be legitimate ; but its result 
would still be very humbling: his would be an 
example of success before which the greater 
part of his most devoted followers must hide 
their heads. But when we remember that the 
grand design of his mission* was to bear, our sins 
in 'his own body on the tree, 1 Pet. ii. 24; that 
the rejection of his testimony and the personal 
insults which he bore were part of those suffer- 
ings through which it became him for whom 
are all things, and by whom are all things, in 
bringing many sons unto glory, to make the 
Captain of their salvation perfect ; (compare 
Heb. ii. 10, with Isa. liii. 4 ;) that he even took 
our infirmities that he might be a merciful and 
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, 
to make reconciliation for the sins of the people, 
Heb. ii. 17 ; that he suffered being tempted, that 
he might be able to succour the tempted, ver. 18; 



* THE MINISTRY OF CHRIST. 77 

when we remember these things, and view them 
in relation to his great sacrifice on the cross, the 
question of the number of souls saved by his 
personal ministry, infinitely important to them- 
selves as their salvation undoubtedly was, dwin- 
dles into insignificance. 

Let it moreover be borne in mind, that his 
life and labours have formed the text-book of 
all who have been successfully engaged, from 
that day until now, in saving the souls of men ; 
and that, by anticipation, to him gave '^ all the 
prophets witness, that through his name who- 
soever believeth in him shall receive remission 
of sins." Acts x. 43. Let us give to these 
considerations but a moderate share of atten- 
tion, and then dare we form a low estimate of 
his success? He finished the work which was 
given him to do, John xvii. 4, and the pleasure 
of the Lord prospered in his hand. Isa. liii. ]0. 

But further: he expressly stated, ^'He that 
believeth on me, the works that I do, shall he 
do also ; and greater works than these shall he 
do, because I go unto my Father," John xiv. 12. 
This is a declaration which evidently refers to 
augmented success in the conversion of souls ; 
for, in so far as miraculous agency was con- 



78' OBJECTIONS DRAWN FROM 

cerned, his disciples, not excepting the apostles 
themselves, never did works greater than his 
own; the fulfilment of the promise is therefore 
found in the fact that when he was glorified, 
the Holy Ghost was thenceforth given to render 
each of his disciples a source of blessings to the 
world, a fountain of living waters to the uni- 
verse, John vii. 38, 39. 

It may, perhaps, be further objected that the 
success of the apostles was not invariable ; 
that there were mockers at Athens, though Paul 
was the preacher ; Acts xvii. 32 ; that some to 
whom his warmest appeals were directed, judged 
themselves *' unworthy of everlasting life;" 
chap. xiii. 46 ; and that he alluded, with tears, 
to many who, after all his labours for their sal- 
vation, remained enemies of the cross of Christ, 
whose end is destruction. Phil. iii. 18, 19. 

The facts are unquestionable, but when they 
are adduced to disprove the connexion between 
fidelity and success, they are cited in vain ; for, 
with the primitive church, success was the rule, 
failure the exception. At Athens, some dared 
to mock when the apostle preached " the resur- 
rection of the dead," but others received the 
word with gladness. His success, even there, 



THE MINISTRY OF THE APOSTLES. 79 

was such as would delight the heart of many a 
devoted missionary now, even though all his 
exertions besides should have been unproduc- 
tive. Dionysius, the Areopagite, a member of 
the highest spiritual court in the pagan world, 
was no mean convert ; and he was not the only 
one ; Damaris and others were left to testify to 
their heathen neighbours, that a prophet of 
"the unknown God " had passed that way, and 
had told them of the great sacrifice which, once 
for all, had been laid upon his altar to take 
away the sins of the whole world. If Paul's 
kindred in the flesh rejected his testimony, he 
turned to the Gentiles. Acts xiii. 46. And if 
he wept over some, because he had bestowed 
on them labour in vain, to how many did he 
say, '* Our hope, our joy, our crown of rejoicing, 
are ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ 
at his coming?" 1 Thess. ii. 19. Their num- 
ber will never be known till that day shall 
declare it. 

Nor should it be forgotten that the formidable 
opposition with which the apostles had to con- 
tend, instead of disheartening, impelled them 
to new and persevering efforts. They saw 
arrayed against them the fatuity of ignorance 



80 ANCIENT SUCCESS. 

on the one side, and the pride of intellect on 
the other. The Sadducees of their day were 
as flippant and as reckless as any of our modern 
materialists ; and Peter, in his second epistle, 
describes an order of things quite as appalling 
as any with which infidelity would embody its 
idea of a new moral world. Yet these were 
the materials which, transformed into living 
stones, were brought together to build *' a 
spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up 
spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus 
Christ," 1 Peter ii. 5. In preaching the Gos- 
pel, Paul considered himself ** a debtor both to 
the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the 
wise and to the unwise," Rom. i. 14: and he 
included converted infidels and sensualists, of 
all possible varieties, when he said, ** And such 
were some of you ; but ye are washed, but ye 
are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name 
of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit ' of our 
God." 1 Cor. vi. 11. 

But who that is competent to form an opinion 
on the subject, can say that success is now the 
rule, and failure still the exception ? The state 
of things in this respect is fearfully changed. 
To say nothing of the neglected and profligate 



MODERN INEFFICIENCY. 81 

world, multitudes attend the preaching of the 
gospel all their days, and live and die without 
religion. Unregenerated thousands dwell in 
the midst of Christian associations and Christian 
ordinances, year after year, and remain in their 
sins till death summons them to judgment and 
consigns them to everlasting flames. And this 
is now regarded so much as a matter of course, 
that when, amidst a population of some tens of 
thousands, a few hundreds are really awakened 
to a sense of their guilt, and are induced to flee 
for refuge to the hope set before them, the 
church stands astonished at so extraordinary a 
circumstance, and the whole country rings with 
news of a revival. 

Far be it from me to discourage the feeling 
of exultation which such a fact should excite. 
*' There is joy in the presence of the angels of 
God over one sinner that repenteth," Luke xv. 
10 ; and if we cannot sympathize with angels, 
we shall never be admitted to their fellowship. 
The man to whom the conversion of sinners af- 
fords no delight, is himself " in the gall of bit- 
terness and in the bond of iniquity." We can- 
not but rejoice in the conversion of others, if 
we have been converted ourselves. But why 



82 ADAPTATION OF THE GOSPEL 

should this our joy so seldom be fulfilled? 
Why should the occasions of holy triumph be 
so few and far between ? In other words, why 
should not the condition which we term revival, 
be the ordinary condition of our churches? 

It is easy to get rid of the difficulty by impu- 
ting it to the government of God. So many 
have done, and have persuaded themselves that 
the salvation of the world is no business of 
theirs: but let us take heed how we charge 
God foolishly. Adam could find a similar rea- 
san for eating the forbidden fruit — *^ The wo- 
man whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave 
me of the tree, and I did eat," Gen. iii. 12 ; but 
the excuse did not avail him : God did not even 
deign to notice it ; and whatever may be our 
opinions now, a day is coming, when to stand 
in the place of the slothful servant, and say, 
*^ Lord, I knew thee that thou art a hard man, 
reaping where thou hast not sown, and gather- 
ing where thou hast not strawed," will be a 
certain presage of *' outer darkness," where 
*^ there shall be weeping and gnashing of 
teeth," Matt. xxv. 24, 30. 

There seems, on the part of some, to be an 
extreme reluctance,^ even to acknowledge the 



TO ANSWER ITS DESIGN. 83 

adaptation of divine ordinances, or, as they are 
more commonly called, the means of grace, to 
the purposes for which they were designed. 
To such persons it appears almost sacrilegious 
to place together, in the relation of cause and 
effect, the preaching of the Gospel and the con- 
version of men. A similar relation they can 
see and admire throughout the world of nature, 
and, so far from regarding it as involving a 
suspicion that the Creator has withdrawn from 
the universe and abandoned it to chance, they 
consider it a proof of his constant presence 
there. But oh, the presumption of attempting 
to trace effects to their causes when religion is 
concerned ! In that department of his govern- 
ment, it would seem, we have nothing to do 
with causes; they all resolve themselves into 
one simple fact — the sovereignty of God. 

Few would assert this in so many words, tut 
many think so, and a great many more, who 
are quite unconscious of entertaining such an 
opinion, act as if they thought so. With them, 
all usefulness, all success, so far as their agency 
is concerned, is quite accidental : the bow is 
drawn at a venture; if the arrow should strike, 
so much the better, and a wondrous proof that 



84 ADAPTATION OF THE GOSPEL. 

God directed its flight : if it should fall to the 
ground before it can take effect, or completely 
miss the mark, they never suspect that the rea- 
son might be their want of strength, or of skill, 
or of both ; they even make their carelessness 
the ground of self-complacency, and fancy that 
they honour God by thus '* ceasing from man,'' 
and placing, as they tell us, no dependence 
upon ** means." And some who would loudly 
exclaim against these absurdities, have never- 
theless suffered their jealousy for the honour of 
God to carry them to dangerous extremes : they 
have magnified his power at the expense of his 
wisdom, and have even contended for the 
divine authority of the Gospel on the ground of 
its incongruity : thus attempting to prove that 
God has sent it, because it accomplishes that 
for which it has neither fitness nor adaptation. 
The assertion of Paul concerning the " fool- 
ishness of preaching," 1 Cor. i. 21, has, in some 
quarters, been grossly misapprehended. His 
argument, correctly understood, will no more 
w^arrant such an assumption, than it will that 
foolishness and wickedness may be predicated 
of the ever-blessed God, verse 25. By *' the 
foolish things," ** the weak things," and *' the 



ITS REJECTION WILFUL. 85 

base things of the world," verses 27, 28, he 
means not things which are really such, but 
things which are so regarded by men of high 
repute for their worldly wisdom ; and, to end 
all doubt as to his intention, he expressly de- 
clares that which the Jews thought a stumbling- 
block, and the Greeks accounted foolishness, to 
be " the power of God, and the wisdom of 
God," verse 24. 

The message of reconciliation is admirably 
adapted to effect the gracious intention of Him 
who sent it ; the '^ faithful saying " is •* worthy 
of all acceptation," 1 Tim. i. 15 ; and that men 
should need the influences of the Holy Spirit 
to dispose them to receive it, is but a proof, and 
perhaps the most fearful one we have, of the 
extent of human depravity. On other subjects, 
and as to other matters, self-love is a motive 
almost resistless : convince a man that your 
advice will greatly promote his advantage, and 
he will want no further reason for its immediate 
adoption ; but as to religion, the indisposition 
of the heart survives the enlightenment of the 
understanding : many know the claims of God, 
but never obey them ; they comprehend the 

H 



86 OBLIGATION OF BEING 

message of mercy, but never believe to the 
salvation of the soul. 

It is a great error, in relation to this state of 
mind, to regard it simpl}^ as a matter of help- 
lessness. It is not helplessness, it is depravity, 
and, as such, deserves the ruin which it brings. 
*' How can we turn to God until he gives us 
his Holy Spirit, and makes us willing in the 
day of his power ? " is the plausible inquiry of 
thousands, while they are daily resisting the 
Holy Ghost, Acts vii. 51. They are refusing 
the gift for w^hich they pretend to be waiting, 
and there is not one among them Avho has not 
already resisted and put away an amount of 
Divine testimon}^, which, if welcomed and fol- 
lowed out, would have been sufficient to bring 
the whole world to the faith of Christ. 

To plead before Him who sends the Holy 
Spirit, a destitution of Divine influence as an 
excuse for neglecting or disobeying his will, is 
but to add insult to rebellion : and when they 
can do it who know that Jesus said, " If ye 
then, being evil, know how to give good gifts 
unto your children, how much more shall your 
heavenly Father give the Hoh^ Spirit to them 
that ask him ? " Luke xi. 13, their conduct pre- 



FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT. 87 

sents a specimen of infatuation hardly to be 
equalled in the universe. I demand of these 
patient waiters for divine influences, how they 
are waiting : w^hether they are waiting as the 
disciples did, " with one accord in prayer and 
supplication ; Acts i. 14 ; or like the Jews, who, 
after all the mighty works which they had 
heard and seen, had the audacit}^ to say to Jesus, 
*' How long dost thou make us to doubt ? If 
thou be the Christ, tell us plainly," John x. 24. 

In religious inquiry, different states of mind 
lead to very different results ; to one class of 
inquirers Jesus said, " An evil and adulterous 
generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall 
no sign be given to it but the sign of the pro- 
phet Jonas," Matt. xii. 39 ; while he assured 
another, that if any man will do the will of 
the Father who sent him, he shall know the 
doctrine whether it be of God, John vii. 17. 

And if the pretence of waiting for the Holy 
Spirit w^ill not excuse the impenitent in re- 
fusing to submit to Christ, neither wdll it 
justify the indolence of Christians in delaying 
to '* w^ork the w^ork of God." If we have not 
the Spirit of Christ, w^e are none of his, Eom. 
viii. 9 ; and if we are his, we '' are led by the 



y» SPIRITUAL DESERTION. 

Spirit," verse 14 ; we *' walk in the Spirit," 
Gal. V. 16 ; and we are expected, and even 
commanded, to be *' filled with the Spirit." 
The obligation of this attainment is as bind- 
ing as it is to abstain from drunkenness, Eph. 
V. 18 ; and that it should not be so accounted 
is a melancholy proof that the church has de- 
generated as to its standard of piety : yet is 
the fact undeniable, that to " come behind " in 
a gift so essential to the progress of religion 
and the conversion of the world, is, by the 
faithful themselves, esteemed a calamity, but 
not a disgrace. Often has that been ascribed 
to the mysteries of Providence, or the sove- 
reignty of God, for which an apostle would 
find another and a more humiliating solution : 
'* Ye have not, because ye ask not ; ye ask, 
and receive not, because ye ask amiss," James 
iv. 2, 3. 

Many, who are loud in their complaints as 
to their destitution of the cheering and quick- 
ening influences of the Holy Spirit, would be 
ashamed to state the time and the manner in 
which they are accustomed to seek them : the 
neglected closet, the careless confession, and 
the drowsy prayer, would account for all ; and 



HOLY SPIRIT, THE ADVOCATE OF CHRIST. 89 

the wonder is, not that the Holy Sph'it has 
been grieved, but that he has not taken his 
flight for ever. 

Others, against whom the charge of negli- 
gence is not so clear, desire the Holy Spirit, 
but it is only to make them happy, not to 
make them useful. They have been seeking 
Divine influences all their lives without any 
sensible improvement in the happiness which 
they so earnestly desire. The reason is appa- 
rent — selfishness is their real motive : the in- 
fluences which they implore are sought for 
home consumption, not for distribution ; for 
mere enjoyment, not for holy activity. This 
is the very thing which, in the passage recently 
quoted, is assigned as a reason why prayer itself 
is sometimes unproductive — " That ye may- 
consume it upon your lusts," or, as the margin 
reads, '^ on your pleasures." Thus was Israel 
'' an empty vine,'- he brought forth *' fruit unto 
himself," Hosea x. 1. 

It is not unlikely that some Christians 
cherish a notion that the chief design of the 
Holy Spirit is to make them happy, on the 
ground that he was described by our Lord, 
and promised to the church, as '' the Com- 

H^ 



90 HIS PLEA SUCCESSFUL. 

forter." It is true that this is one meaning of 
TtaQ&nlrjTog , the word so rendered in the four- 
teenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth chapters of the 
Gospel by John : but it is not the only mean- 
ing of that word, and perhaps is not even the 
best that might have been selected. It is 
used only once again in the New Testament, 
and then, as in the present instance, it comes 
from the pen of the beloved disciple. Now, it 
seems hardly probable, that, in reporting the 
discourses of Christ through the medium of 
another tongue, extremely diverse from that 
in which they were spoken, he would employ 
a word, and especially an unusual one, in a 
sense very remote from that in which he was 
accustomed to use it himself ; yet, in his 
epistle it is rendered *' Advocate," 1 John ii. 1, 
a term which would better suit the sense in 
every instance where it occurs in the Gospel, 
than *' Comforter" would do to take its place 
in the epistle. 

Comparing the passages together, it seems a 
just conclusion, that as Christ is the advocate, 
or representative of his people in heaven, so the 
Holy Spirit is the advocate, or representative 
of Christ upon earth. The plea is in both 



HIS PLEA SUCCESSFUL. 91 

instances the same, — the sacrifice of Calvary. 
*' Jesus Christ, the righteous," pleads that 
sacrifice with God on behalf of man, Heb. ix. 24, 
and the Holy Spirit pleads it with man on 
behalf of God. " Forasmuch as ye were not 
redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and 
gold, but with the precious blood of Christ," 
1 Pet. i. 18, 19, is the argument which he 
sustains with groanings w^hich cannot be uttered. 
Eom. viii. 26. And w^hen that argument 
reaches the heart, ** in demonstration of the 
Spirit and of power " 1 Cor. ii. 4, the inquiry, 
'* Lord, w^hat wouldst thou have me to do ? " 
is the immediate and necessary consequence. 



CHAPTER IV. 

If Jesus were still a man of sorrows, not 
having where to lay his head, Piety might 
spread him a table and provide hitn a home. 
Affection might weave for him the seamless 
garment, or break the alabaster box of ointment 
of spikenard, very precious, and so anoint him 
for his burial. Poverty herself might wash his 
feet with her tears, and wipe them with her 
hair. At the end of his sojourn, Wealth might 
find him a new sepulchre, hewn in the rock, 
where never man was yet laid. And as a final 
act of homage. Gratitude might bring her 
spices and ointments, about a hundred pounds 
weight, as the manner was of the Jews to bury. 
But these offerings now, like the last, would all 
be unseasonable. He needed not the skill of 
the embalmers when he had risen from the 
dead, and he requires not our personal minis- 
trations now he has ascended to glory. 

Yet are there services still more important, 
still more essential, which he allows us to 
render him, and which he expects at our hands. 



CLAIMS OF JESUS. 93 

The spirit of his parting charge to Peter may 
be considered as extending through all time. 
*' Lovest thou me ?" — " feed my sheep : " 
*' Lovest thou me ?" — "feed my lambs," John 
xxi. 15 — 17. If he has " other sheep to bring 
which are not of this fold," to us is intrusted 
the instrumentality which shall guide them to 
his feet. And the da\^ in which his church 
shall have subdued the world to his faith and 
fear, is that in which " he shall see of the 
travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied." 
Isa. liii. 11. 

The glory of Christ must be our grand 
motive while w^e attempt the conversion of 
sinners. To save their souls from death is 
a noble enterprise, but it derives its highest 
character from the honour which it brings to 
him who is the resurrection and the life. Is 
Jesus my Lord ? Then others shall obey him. 
Is he the propitiation for our sins ? Then " not 
for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole 
world." 1 John ii. 2. 

The fact of his infinite sacrifice is the ground 
of his universal claim ; and if we w^ould lay 
hold of the consciences of men w^ith a firm 
grasp, we must boldly state it, notwithstanding 



94 EXTENT OF HIS SACRIFICE. 

all the objections of the schoolmen. Some 
may suspect our orthodoxy, and others think us 
mad, but our defence is ready. " For whether 
we be beside ourselves, it is to God : or whether 
we be sober, it is for your cause. For the love 
of Christ constraineth us ; because we thus 
judge, that if one died for all, then were all 
dead : and that he died for all, that they which 
live should not henceforth live unto themselves, 
but unto him which died for them, and rose 
again," 2 Cor. v. 13—15. 

If metaphysical subtleties prevent our saying 
to men who afterwards are found to perish in 
unbelief, '' God, having raised up his Son 
Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away 
every one of you from his iniquities," our 
theology is not precisely that of the apostolic 
school, for this is a faithful rendering of the 
very words of Peter when addressing a most 
hopeless assembly. Acts iii. 26. His hearers^ 
on that occasion, were persons who had not 
only rejected the testimony of Christ, but their 
unbelief having survived the day of Pentecost, 
they had also bidden defiance to the Holy 
Ghost. Surely, if any circumstances would 
justify caution and reserve, such were these. 



APOSTOLIC APPEALS. 95 

Yet he boldly claims the men who had " denied 
the Holy One and the Just," and *' desired 
a murderer to be granted " unto them, and had 
" killed the Prince of life ;" — and he claims 
them on the broad ground of God's gracious 
purpose that every one of them should be 
converted. Many who listened felt the appeal, 
and the total number of converts soon amounted 
to five thousand. 

In taking this course, Peter only followed 
the example of his Lord, who, although he 
" knew from the beginning who they were that 
believed not, and who should betray him," 
John vi. 64, said to those who had not the love 
of God in them, and who would not go to him 
that they might have life, " These things I say, 
that ye might be saved," chap. v. 34. 

Let our appeals to the consciences of men be 
equally unfettered, and then, and not till then, 
we shall " preach, warning every man, and 
teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may 
present every man perfect in Christ Jesus," 
Col. i. 28. Since he " gave himself a ransom 
for all, to be testified in due time," 1 Tim. ii. 6, 
let us, in proclaiming that testimony, tell the 
world, that God our Saviour " will have all men 



96 MODERN MISAPPREHENSIONS. 

to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of 
the truth," verses 3, 4. If ever we have a 
right to assume an air of confidence, it is 
when we are treading in the footsteps of inspi- 
ration. And where can these be plainer ? On 
few subjects, however, are the notions of the 
hearers of the Gospel so perverse and contracted 
as they are in relation to the grace of God. 
x4wakened sinners often ask, with intense 
anxiety, whether they have a right to do that 
which God has made a matter of solemn, and 
awful, and universal obligation. A right to 
repent ! when God has commanded *' all men 
everywhere," to do it? Acts xvii. 80. A right 
to submit to Christ ! when God has sworn that 
to him every knee shall bow? (Compare Isa. 
xlv. 21 ; John v. 21 ; Rom. xiv. 11.) A right 
to believe the Gospel ! when '' he that believeth 
not shall be damned," Mark xvi. 16, and is, in 
fact, "condemned already ?" John iii. 18. 

It would seem that some very plain things 
require to be made yet plainer, ere the world, 
ere the church itself, will receive them. A 
pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, 
proceeds from the throne of God and of the 
Lamb. The Spirit says, '' Come." Then let 



RELIGIOUS CONVERSATION A DUTY. 97 

the "bride say, ** Come." Let ail that hear say, 
*' Come." And then he that is athirst shall 
come, and whosoever will, shall '' take the 
water of life freely." Eev. xxii. 17. 

The gracious invitations of the Gospel must 
be made, not only the subject of pulpit discourse, 
but of social converse. The disciples of Christ 
must daily press his claims on the attention of 
all within their reach. The distinction between 
the church and the world will then be more 
broadly drawn, and many will say, ''We will 
go with you, for God is with you." 

Is this too hard a service to be required at 
our hands ? If any think so, let them ask 
whether, when for the time they ought to be 
teachers, they do not need that some one should 
teach them again the first principles of the 
oracles of God. The obligation before us is 
not peculiar to Christianity, it belonged to the 
ancient dispensation : " These words, which I 
command thee this day, shall be in thy heart, 
and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy 
children, and shalt talk of them when thou 
sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest 
by the way, and when thou liest down, and 
when thou risest up," Deut. vi. 6, 7. Here we 
1 



98 RELIGIOUS CONVERSATION A DUTY. 

have a clear and ample direction as to this im- 
portant duty. The grand truths of religion are 
to furnish matter for our lessons to the young, 
for our social converse, for our general discourse, 
and for our private meditation. And the force 
of this precept, so far from having been im- 
paired by the lapse of ages, is vastly augment- 
ed. ^' God, who at sundry times and in divers 
manners spake in time past unto the fathers by 
the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to 
us by his Son," Heb. i. 1, 2 ; and " this is the 
message which we have heard of him," — " that 
God is light, and in him is no darkness at all ; 
but if we walk in the light, as he is in the 
light, we have fellowship one with another, and 
the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us 
from all sin," 1 John i. 5, 7. The dispensation 
of types and shadows has given place to " a 
kingdom which cannot be moved." Heb. xii. 28. 
We have stores of information, lessons of in- 
struction, facilities of labour, and motives to 
exertion, such as the fathers of Israel never 
knew. It becomes therefore the paramount 
duty of every Christian to obtain and to diffuse 
religious information. 

The grand matters of faith and holiness lie 



QUALIFICATIONS. 99 

within a narrow compass. A large amount of 
knowledge, however desirable in order to use- 
fulness, is not essential. The little maid who 
waited on Naaman's wife, was probably no 
remarkable specimen of intelligence, but she 
was able to say, *' Would God, my lord were 
with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he 
would recover him of his leprosy." The ex- 
pression of that wish led to its fulfilment ; 
Naaman went to Elisha and was healed. 

It must, however, be borne in mind, that 
though a moderate portion of knowledge may- 
suffice, wisdom is indispensable ; and the only 
wisdom which will answer the purpose, is that 
which Cometh from above, and " is first pure, 
then peaceable," James iii. 17. Worldly policy 
will do nothing here. But " if any man lack 
wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all 
men liberally, and upbraideth not ; and it shall 
be given him," chap. i. 5, And in no case can 
we implore that blessing with so much confi- 
dence of Divine approval, or with such certainty 
of success, as when we ask it in order to lead 
sinners to Christ. 

In following out that glorious design, differ- 
ent modes of treatment must be adopted, with 



100 OPPORTUNITIES. 

different persons, and on different occasions. 
To pursue the same plan in every instance, 
would be absurd and even ridiculous. All 
need the same salvation, but all cannot be 
reached by the same methods of address. The 
young, the timid, the hopeful, and the inquiring, 
would be disheartened and alarmed, by that 
which in the case of the careless, the hardened, 
and the profane, would approve itself as the 
most ready, if not the only way of securing 
attention. 

Invaluable opportunities of usefulness often 
occur in travelling, and Christians should study 
to turn them to the best account. On such 
occasions, general remarks on religion will 
seldom do much good, or obtain any thing in 
reply beyond Yes or No. It will be found a 
much better plan to come to the point at once, 
and, although addressing a perfect stranger, to 
say, without the slightest preface or apology, 
** Do you care any thing about your soul ? " 
'^ Pray, what are your views of religion ? " 
*' Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ ? '' 
^' Have you a good hope through grace ? " 
The very abruptness of the inquiry will awaken 
attention, and probably elicit a reply which you 



METHODS. 101 

may make the text of your observations for the 
remainder of a long journey. If, however, 
you wish to accomplish your object, you must 
speak with firmness, and not as if you were saying 
something of which you w^ere half ashamed. Make 
the inquiry just in the same tone and manner as 
you would say, *' Have you heard of the dreadful 
fire last night ? " — " Can you tell me how many 
persons were burned to death ? " 

All attempts of this kind, to be successful, 
must be put forth in a modest and affectionate 
manner : any thing which would seem like 
saying, '* Stand by thyself, for I am holier than 
thou," would do more harm than good; and we 
had better hold our peace, even from good 
things, while the wicked is in our sight, than 
thus cause our good to '* be evil-spoken of ; " 
but let it be seen that we really aim to do them 
good, and even the most abandoned will usually 
listen to what we have to say, and sometimes 
express a feeling of gratitude. It is, however, 
important to remark, that in conversation with 
strangers, close appeals to the conscience should 
never be attempted unless w^e can get the 
individual alone. Every man has a character 
of some sort to maintain, if it be only for 



102 IMPULSES. 

wickedness, and it is possible, by an injudicious 
attempt at reproof, to increase the evil which we 
deplore. 

One very important matter in spiritual hus- 
bandry is, '^ that he that plougheth should 
plough in hope," 1 Cor. ix. 10. A bare 
peradventure as to the probability of success, 
will go but little way towards the production 
of persevering effort ; but let us stedfastly de- 
pend on the declarations of God concerning 
the ultimate triumph of his truth, and then 
difficulties will vanish, for our faith will remove 
mountains, and cast them into the sea, Matt, 
xxi. 21. Our rule of duty, moreover, will 
be taken, not from appearances or impressions, 
but from the lively oracles of God. *' He that 
observeth the wind shall not sow, and he that 
regardeth the clouds shall not reap," Eccles. 
xi. 4. If we wait for favourable omens, we 
may wait till our opportunity of improving 
them is gone for ever. We have already a 
more certain word of direction than our own 
unaided sagacity will ever be able to supply — 
" In the morning sow thy seed, and in the 
evening withhold not thy hand, for thou know- 
est not whether shall prosper, either this or 



CLAIMS OF THE YOUNG. 103 

that, or whether they both shall be alike good," 
verse 6. 

Hence it appears, that the very circumstance 
which under the influence of morbid apprehen- 
sions would induce us to refrain from labour, 
w^hen rightly regarded, will impel us to more 
extended effort, that disappointment in one 
quarter may be counterbalanced by success in 
another. Occasional failure is nothing new ; 
it has mingled with the most auspicious scenes ; 
but *' what is the chaff to the wheat? saith the 
Lord," Jer. xxiii. 28. Judas was an apostate, 
but his eleven companions endured to the end ; 
the defection of Ananias and Sapphira threw 
no suspicion over the triumphs of Pentecost ; 
and the fatal error of Simon, the magician, 
placed in no peril the commission of Peter and 
John to bestow the Holy Ghost. Acts viii. 
14—24. 

A very hopeful department of Christian 
labour is with the young. Wherever we go 
we should endeavour to say something to them 
which will be worth remembering when w^e are 
dead. A single remark may direct the whole 
course of their future lives. But if we desire 
to do them good, our observations must not 



104 PARENTAL NEGLIGENCE. 

be confined to the generalities of religion. As 
in the case of elder persons, close appeals to 
the conscience and the heart are the only- 
means of producing a deep and lasting im- 
pression on their minds. The claims of Christ 
must be pressed on their immediate attention, 
and we must give them distinctly to under- 
stand that their characters are now forming for 
eternity. 

A monstrous persuasion is abroad in the 
world, and is current in the church, that de- 
cision in religion belongs exclusively to riper 
age ; an opinion which has been the ruin of 
thousands. Not only have parents, professedly 
Christian, contented themselves while seeing 
their children grow up around them in utter 
carelessness about their souls, but they have 
even sanctioned in them the dangerous notion 
that the question of personal piety, like the 
choice of some business or profession, is one 
which belongs to a future day. Meanwhile, 
the unregeneracy of their offspring, so far from 
being a subject of deep and agonizing solici- 
tude, has scarcely awakened the slightest 
anxiety. But though they have slumbered, 
the enemy has not, Matt. xiii. 25. The con- 



EARLY PIETY. 105 

sequence is, that the groand which they in- 
tended at some future time to cultivate, has 
been pre-occupied, and the seeds of licentious- 
ness and infidelity have begun to bring forth 
fruit unto death, before it was even suspected 
that they had been sown. 

I have almost been led to question whether 
some parents think their unco verted children 
the subjects of depravity. More than once, 
when I was beginning to make an impression 
on the heart of some dear child, as to the 
necessity of loving and serving God, and the 
enormity of refusing or neglecting to obey him, 
have I been interrupted by some mistaken 
mother, who has assured me that her child is 
a very good little creature, and all that a 
parent can wish ; and that mother has not 
been a gay and thoughtless worldling, from 
whom such an observation w^ould awaken no 
surprise, but a woman professing godliness, 
and who, years hence, (should she live to see 
her children forsake the faith of their fathers, 
and plunge into fashionable folly and dissipa- 
tion,) will think it a most mysterious provi- 
dence, that young people, so carefully trained, 
and so religiously educated, should be alto- 
gether regardless of piety. 



106 SABBATH-SCHOOLS. 

Children of very tender age are susceptible 
not only of deep religious impressions, but of 
decided piety. So far as natural capacity is 
concerned, where the one may be found, there 
may the other. No child is too young to love 
the Saviour of the world, who is capable of 
understanding the nature of his claims ; it 
would be strange indeed were it otherwise. 
To make salvation a question of mere intel- 
lectual endowment, would ill accord with the 
moral perfections of God, and contradict some 
of the plainest declarations of holy writ. *' I 
thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and 
earth ! that thou hast hid these things from 
the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them 
unto babes," Luke x. 21, was the language of 
Christ ; and, as if to end all doubt on the sub- 
ject, he further said, " Suffer the little children 
to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of 
such is the kingdom of God," Mark x. 14. 
To receive one such little child in his name, 
and from the lips " of babes and sucklings," 
Matt. xxi. 16, to hear the perfection of his 
praise, is bliss which they who are wise to win 
souls alone can know\ 

To many, who have few other opportunities 



SABBATH-SCHOOLS. 107 

of doing good, the Sabbath-school presents an 
inviting field ; it may be so cultivated as to 
repay their exertions ; yet, notwithstanding all 
the good which such institutions have hitherto 
accomplished, as a whole they have been a 
failure. Their design, in the first instance, was 
defective ; it was mere instruction : the conver- 
sion of the children was not regarded as the 
chief, the essential thing, without which the 
best attainments would be vain, and all the 
labour of imparting knowledge be thrown away. 
In many cases the teachers themselves were 
unconverted, and with them the routine of 
instruction on the Sabbath was as much a mat- 
ter of secular employment as any other during 
the w^eek. 

Another radical defect was, that Sabbath- 
schools were regarded as eleemosynary institu- 
tions, a refuge for the destitute. Conducted 
on such a plan, they have generally proved a 
loss of time and a waste of labour. There are 
localities, undoubtedly, where a Sabbath-school 
must of necessity be a charity-school, but such 
are only found in large cities and pauperized 
neighbourhoods. There can be no excuse for 
such a state of things elsewhere. 



108 BIBLE CLASSES. 

In some places, Sabbath-schools are now 
becoming what they ought always to have been, 
nurseries for " the household of faith." Where 
this is the case, they include all the children 
belonging to the congregation, and the teachers 
are some of the most intelligent and devoted 
members of the church, whose grand and ex- 
clusive aim is the salvation of every child com- 
mitted to their care. In such instances the 
course of instruction comprehends something 
more than learning to read, and committing 
to memory portions of Scripture, catechisms, 
hymns, and confessions of faith ; it embraces 
the elements of sound biblical information. The 
higher classes, taking the word of God for 
their text-book, are led at once to the fountain 
of knowledge, and, under suitable direction, 
are taught to search the Scriptures, whether 
things are so. Acts xvii. 11. 

The beneficial influence of such a system, 
even on the teachers themselves, is incalcula- 
ble. Unless they would become ridiculous in 
the eyes of their pupils, they must thoroughly 
examine the meaning and connexion of every 
passage cited in the lesson ; and so, the habit 
of patient research, which, in the first instance. 



THOROUGH CONSECRATION. 109 

was adopted as a precautionary measure of 
self-defence, will, even before they are aware 
of it, make them '* mighty in the Scriptures." 
These, therefore, are methods of training, 
which, in the walks of private life, will furnish 
the church of God with its brightest orna- 
ments : men sound in the faith, " in doctrine 
showing uncorruptness," holding forth the word 
of life. The vagaries of religious opinion to 
which superficial inquirers are commonly ex- 
posed, will present no temptations to persons, 
whose faith, thus grounded and settled, is no 
longer the sport of " every wind of doctrine." 
Eph. iv. 14. 

Never shall we have such a revival of reli- 
gion as the case requires, until all the depart- 
ments of labour which I have specified, and 
others which my limits will not allow me to 
mention, are thoroughly and conscientiously 
filled. Every Christian must feel his own 
responsibility, and make it one subject of his 
morning prayer, that God would give him wis- 
dom to win souls : and when he retires to his 
closet in the evening, he must be able, with a 
clear conscience and stedfast faith, to implore 
a blessing on the fresh labours which he has 
J 



no AGGRESSIVE PIETY. 

put forth on that behalf. When Zion puts on 
her strength, her sons will never dare to sleep 
over their unprofitableness. A Christian in 
vigorous health, or able to attend to his usual 
avocations, retiring to rest without having made 
some distinct endeavour to save souls from 
death, will be disturbed in his dreams by the 
cries and groans of those who " are ready to 
be slain," and rising from his unrefreshing 
slumbers, will earnestly pray that he may never 
again so forget his sacred obligation, before he 
lies down on that bed from which he shall not 
rise till the heavens be no more. 

Devoted, personal, and unremitting effort, on 
the part of the whole body of the faithful, 
would bring down such a blessing that there 
would be no room to contain it ; the wilderness 
and the solitary place would be glad, and the 
desert would rejoice and blossom as the rose ; 
churches and pastors would be doubled and 
quadrupled ; repeated success would embolden 
the timid and encourage the desponding, and 
each new convert would immediately become 
a valuable auxiliary to the great cause of truth 
and holiness. '' What are you doing for 
Christ? " would no longer be a question an- 



CONCEALING SPIRITUAL BENEFIT. Ill 

swered only by a blash, or a sigh, or by silence 
more ominous than either, but it would meet 
with a ready response from a cloud of witnesses 
to whom the honoured individual would refer as 
his joy and crown of rejoicing. 

When prosperity dawns on the church, con- 
verts will resemble in number, as well as in 
purity, the dew-drops of the morning. Psa. ex. 
3. '* Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as 
the doves to their windows ? " Isa. Ix. 8. But 
when " a little one shall become a thousand, 
and a small one a strong nation," verse 22, to 
be regarded by none as their fathers in Christ, 
1 Cor. iv. 15, will be thought a far greater 
calamity than, in the Hebrew commonwealth, 
it was reckoned to die childless. Children in 
the faith are the highest prize imaginable, short 
of a heavenly crown : ** Happy is the man that 
hath his quiver full of them ; they shall not be 
ashamed, but they shall speak with the ene- 
mies in the gate." In such hands he may 
safely leave his reputation while living, and his 
memory when dead. Not even a tombstone 
may mark the spot where he lies, but *' the 
righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance," 
Psa. cxii. 6 ; and when the proudest monu- 
j2 



112 NATURE AND LIMITATION 

merits of fame are blended in one common ruin, 
and the brightest lights of science are all gone 
out, they " that are wise shall shine as the 
brightness of the firmament, and they that turn 
many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and 
ever," Dan. xii. 3. 

But though the grand reward of faithfulness 
to the claims of Christ and the souls of men is 
secured at the resurrection of the just, it often 
happens that '* hope deferred maketh the heart 
sick," Prov. xiii. 12. It is therefore very im- 
portant that those who watch for souls should 
be informed of every instance in which their 
labours have been successful. This is but an 
act of justice, a tribute of honesty as well as of 
gratitude. The woman who came in the press 
to our Lord, and touched the border of his gar- 
ment, was not suffered to depart without ac- 
knowledging her obligation. He admired her 
faith, but not her silence ; and to reprove her 
attempt at concealment, he made her declare 
before all the people for what cause she had 
touched him, and how she was healed imme- 
diately, Luke viii. 47. This incident is full of 
instruction, and ministers reproof to many who 
have received blessings by stealth, and have 



OF HUMAN AGENCY. 113 

never had the honesty to acknowledge on earth 
a debt of gratitude which they will remember 
in heaven. 

On this subject I can write most feelingly. 
There have been seasons in which I have felt 
all the depression of labouring in vain, when, 
had I been told of instances of ministerial suc- 
cess which afterwards came to my knowledge, 
I should have thanked God and taken courage : 
and that which has happened to me has hap- 
pened to others. Few Christians seem to ac- 
count it a matter of sacred obligation to inform 
those whom God has honoured with the instru- 
mentality of their conversion of that circum- 
stance, although they would be more delighted 
at such intelligence than they would be with 
" thousands of gold and silver." 

It is by no means improbable that many 
devoted servants of Christ have gone dowm to 
the grave with a broken heart, because they 
were never informed of the real extent of their 
success ; and the injury inflicted on them was 
as nothing in comparison with its results as to 
others. It seems impossible to hear of the con- 
version of sinners through our labours, without 
feeling encouraged to labour more abundantly : 

j3 



114 SUBORDINATE SOURCES 

it is therefore not too much to affirm, that had 
some of the servants of Christ known all the 
occasions of thanksgiving which ought to have 
come to their knowledge, their success would 
have been greater, and their occasions of 
thanksgiving more abundant. The conversion 
of one sinner would have led them to attempt 
the conversion of another, until life itself would 
have become one unbroken series of devoted 
and successful labour. 

While concealment of spiritual benefit is, on 
the part of some, the result of timidity or 
thoughtlessness, with others it arises from de- 
sign ; and in its defence they allege an appre- 
hension of giving that glory to man which 
ought to be rendered to God. This is another 
instance in which perplexities never felt in 
common life are associated with religion. We 
surely do not the less feel our obligation to God 
for the preservation of our lives, because we 
reward the watchman who awakened us when 
we were sleeping among the flames. Who 
sent him to our rescue? How was it that we 
heard the warning ? Whence came the strength, 
the self-possession, and the promptitude which 
secured our escape ? Solomon has supplied an 



OF DELiailT AND ENCOUUAGEMENT. 115 

answer: ** Safety is of the Lord/' ProverTbs, 
xxi. 31. 

*• By grace are ye saved, t-hrough faith ; and 
that not of yourselves : it is the gift of God : 
not of works, lest any man should boast. For 
we are his w'orkmanship, created in Christ 
Jesus unto good w^orks, w^iich God hath before 
ordained that we should w^alk in them," Eph. 
ii. 8 — 10. This is the grand doctrine which 
embraces, and combines, and harmonizes every 
other, throughout the w4iole range of divine 
revelation. Nevertheless, by agencies the most 
diverse ** w^orketh that one and the self-same 
Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he 
v/ill," 1 Cor. xii. 11. Hence w^e become ** fel- 
low-workers unto the kingdom of God," Col. 
iv. 11, and are even required to w^ork out our 
ow^n salvation with fear and trembling, for it is 
God which worketh in us both to w^ill and to do 
of his good pleasure, Phil. ii. 12, 13. On these 
grounds Paul felt no hesitation in exhorting 
Timothy to save both himself and them that 
heard him, 1 Tim. iv. 16. The admonition 
w^as enforced by his own example. He w^as 
made all things to all men, that he might by 
all means save some. 1 Cor. ix. 22. 

Should it be contended that obedience to 



116 GODLY SINCEBITY. 

Christ is in itself a sufficient motive to perse- 
vering exertion, apart from all further encour- 
agement, it is enough to reply, that one who 
was " in labours more abundant,'* 2 Cor. xi. 23, 
and who counted not his life dear unto himself 
so that he might finish his course with joy, and 
the ministry which he had received of the Lord 
Jesus, Acts XX. 24, was not unaccustomed to 
look to his hearers for fruit which might abound 
to their account, Phil. iv. 17. He rejoiced, 
even when Christ was preached of envy and 
strife, by some who wished to add affliction to 
his bonds, chap. i. 15, 16, 18 ; but his tender- 
est sympathies were directed to those who were 
the fruit of his immediate labours. ** As my 
beloved sons I warn you. For though ye have 
ten thousand instructers in Christ, yet have ye 
not many fathers ; for in Christ Jesus I have 
begotten you through the gospel," 1 Cor. iv. 
14, 15. And the affection which he cherished 
towards these Corinthians was the invariable 
feeling of his heart, in relation to all his chil- 
dren in the faith. Witness his appeal to Phil- 
emon, on behalf of a runaway slave. ** I be- 
seech thee, for my son Onesimus, whom I have 
begotten in mj'' bonds. If thou count me there- 



CHARGE CF ENTHTTSIASM. 117 

fore a partner, receive him as myself. If he 
hath wronged thee, or ovveth thee aught, put 
that on mine account ; I Paul have written it 
with mine own hand, I will repay it : albeit I 
do not say to thee how thou owest unto me even 
thine own self besides," Philemon x. 17 — 19. 
Only those whom God has extensively hon- 
oured with the conversion of souls, can com- 
prehend the fulness of confidence, or the 
intensity of affection, which breathes in this 
one short sentence, " For now we live, if ye 
stand fast in the Lord." 1 Thess. iii. 8. 

But whatever may be our subordinate sources 
of delight and encouragement, the secret of 
** patient continuance in well doing " can only 
be learned in the closet. Persevering prayer 
will lead to persevering effort, and our best 
sympathies will be those which bring us into 
closer fellowship with Him whom we serve. 
Perpetual intercourse with the King whose gar- 
ments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, 
out of the ivory palaces whereby they have 
made him glad, Ps. xlv. 8, v/ill enable us to 
say : '' Thanks be unto God, which always 
causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh 
manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in 



118 REPLY TO THE CHARGE 

every place," 2 Cor. ii. 14. Wherever we go, 
the fragrance of heaven will rest on our foot- 
steps, and the true odour of sanctity evince that 
we have been with Jesus. Our only apology 
for zeal which the world, will reckon imperti- 
nent, and resist as obtrusive, will be that of 
Peter and John to the rulers, and elders, and 
scribes : '* We cannot but speak the things 
which we have seen and heard," Acts iv. 20. 

To live *'as seeing Him who is invisible," 
Heb. xi. 27, is the grand attainment with which 
no other will bear comparison. Whatever may 
be our qualifications for usefulness, if this be 
lacking, they will all be vain. We may enforce 
the claims of God, of Christ, of the soul, of eter- 
nity, " with the tongues of men and of angels," 
but in the absence of overwhelming views of 
Him whom no eye hath seen, all will be but 
" as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." 
The man of taste may praise our eloquence, 
and the careless sinner perhaps be startled by 
our fervid declamation ; but both will despise 
our hypocrisy, and well they may : such themes 
as redeeming love and immortal life, ill befit 
the stage, and the man who is merely an actor 
had better let them alone. To pretend to that 



OF BELIGIOtrS ENTHUSIASM. 119 

compassion which we do not feel, and that fer- 
vour which we do not possess, will only be to 
expose ourselves to merited contempt : the 
world will mock our pretensions, God will 
reject our services, and Satan himself will say, 
** Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are 
ye ? ** Acts xix. 15. 

Let us but convince the ungodly, that facts, 
solemn and awful, but unquestionable facts, 
have awakened our emotions, and the most 
careless and most hardened will cease to blame 
us for being in earnest. The true reason why 
the world ever charges the church with enthu- 
siasm, is latent infidelity. The facts are disbe- 
lieved, and therefore the emotions awakened by 
those facts are treated as weaknesses or halluci- 
nations. In no other way is it possible to 
account for the morbid sensitiveness which is 
so common as to powerful religious affections. 
No one would censure, for the intensity of his 
emotions, the man whose house is in flames, 
and who is watching the operations of the fire- 
brigade while they are attem.pting to reach the 
windows where his wife and children are 
imploring help, and expecting that each minute 
of delay will be fatal : under such circumstan- 



120 REPLY TO THE CHARGE 

ces, no amount of feeling, no violence of ges- 
ture, would be thought extravagant. But let a 
Christian, who is a husband, or a parent, be 
deeply moved because, notwithstanding all the 
efforts which are made for their benefit, the 
members of his household show no signs of con- 
version, and wherefore is he regarded as an 
enthusiast ? Because the world disbelieves 
the threatenings of God, and therefore heeds 
not " the lake which burneth with fire and 
brimstone,'' Eev. xxi. 8. 

The same skepticism which frowns on com- 
passion for the impenitent, also scov/ls on the 
joy and peace in believing which are the birth- 
right of the regenerate. A little worldly pros- 
perity is expected to make a man very happy, 
and no one wonders at the satisfaction which 
accompanies the resolution, *' I will pull down 
my barns and build greater, and there will I 
bestow all my fruits and my goods ; and I will 
say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods, 
laid up for many years ; take thine ease, eat, 
drink, and be merry," Luke xii. 18, 19. I 
remember an instance in which sudden prosper- 
ity was followed by even fatal effects. An 
industrious couple were at the same time seized 



OF RELIGIOUS ENTHUSIASM. 121 

with a malignant fever. They were placed 
in separate rooms, but within hearing of each 
other. Their mutual inquiries were almost 
incessant, till delirium in both ended all anxie- 
ty. The husband died and was buried, while 
the wife was in a state of utter unconsciousness. 
When she began to recover her reason, the first 
indication of its return was the affectionate 
inquiry, ** My dear! — my love! — are you 
better ? " but there was no voice, neither any 
that regarded. She became alarmed. To keep 
her quiet, the nurse wickedly told her that her 
husband was better, but that the doctor had 
sent him away for change of air. This false- 
hood satisfied her for several days, and then, 
she awoke to the overwhelming consciousness 
of her bereavement, and found herself the 
widowed mother of five children, with little 
prospect of any thing but the workhouse : the 
staff of the family was gone. She was, howev- 
er, a woman of spirit, and she roused herself to 
exertion. Early and late she toiled to keep 
together the little business that remained, and 
in part she succeeded. It was a hard struggle, 
but still, by diligence and frugality, she kept 
herself and her babes from pauperism. Thus 



122 EMINENT PIETY ESSENTIAL. 

things continued, till one morning the postman 
brought her a letter from the executors of an 
old gentleman, a distant relation to her late 
husband, but of whom she had never heard, 
and from whom, of course, she had no expec- 
tations, informing her of his death, and that he 
had left her eight hundred pounds. This sud- 
den reverse of fortune was too much for her to 
bear; for a whole fortnight she never closed 
her eyes, and then she died. Her death was 
universally attributed to excessive joy, and 
though many lamented it for the sake of her 
children, none seemed to think it strange ; cer- 
tainly not one was heard to remark on the evils 
of property, or found to opine that an unexpect- 
ed legacy is a very dangerous thing. Now, 
suppose that instead of being in straitened cir- 
cumstances she had been under deep anxiety 
about her soul, and that instead of being inform- 
ed of a legacy of eight hundred pounds, she had 
obtained an assurance of her acceptance with 
God, and that in consequence of such assurance, 
joy had kept her awake for a fortnight, at the 
end of which she died — what would the world 
have said then ? How rife would have been 
the imputations of extravagance and fanaticism ! 



EMINENT PIETY ESSENTIAL. 123 

And why would the censure, withholden in the 
one case, be awarded in the other ? Simply, 
because, in the first instance, the facts are 
admitted, and in the second they are disbeliev- 
ed. And such, in truth, amidst all the rever- 
ence which they pretend to pay to religion, is 
the infidelity of a large portion of the uncon- 
verted. 

But while " he that believeth not is condemn- 
ed already, because he hath not believed in the 
name of the only begotten Son of God,*' John 
iii. 18, those who are exempted from that con- 
demnation must show their faith by their works, 
James ii. 18. Their holy zeal must prove their 
godly sincerity, 2 Cor. i. 12, and convince the 
world that the Christian faith is not a matter 
of opinion, or speculation, or conjecture, but of 
plain, demonstrable truth, of which they are 
quite as certain as of their own existence. 

Till self-denial ceases to be so accounted, and 
personal sacrifices are thought unworthy of that 
name, the world will continue to disbelieve our 
creed, and mock our exertions. In vain shall 
we preach that the ways of wisdom are pleas- 
antness, and that her paths are peace, Prov. iii. 
17, while we ourselves account the service of 



124 CONCLUSION. 

God a weariness. Our whole character must 
bear out our testimonjr. Risen with Christ, we 
must seek the things which are above ; and 
while we offer to conduct men to brighter 
worlds, we must lead the way. Our families 
will then become nurseries for the church, and 
the church a nursery for heaven. Our general 
intercourse will constantly bear on the salvation 
of souls, and the pleasure of God will prosper 
in our hands. 

But whether we will do the work or not, it 
must be done. The world is to be converted to 
Christ, and sooner or later the required agency 
will be found. Brethren, it remains for us to 
say whether we will lead the onward movement, 
or be trodden down by its pressure ; whether 
we will impart a new character of fidelity to 
the rising age, or content ourselves with the 
selfish piety which has so long been current in 
the church, until the merciful providence of God, 
in pity to the next generation, shall thrust us 
aside to make room for men of firmer mould. 

Yet why should our firmness, our zeal, or 
our piety, be inferior to theirs ? Will the men 
of any age owe more to redeeming love than 
■we, or have more powerful reasons for setting 



CONCLUSION. 125 

forth the great salvation ? Have we feelings ? 
— so will they. Have we infirmities? — so 
will they. Can we find excuses? — so might 
they. There will be no motive for them which 
is not available now ; no promise for them 
which may not be pleaded now ; no aid for 
them which may not be granted now ; and no 
success for them which may not be expected 
now. ** Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye 
stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the 
work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that 
your labour is not in vain in the Lord," 1 Cor. 
XV. 58. 



" * DECAPOI.IS ' is the title of an exceeding'ly striking' little volume from the pen of 
the Rev. D. E. Ford, of Lyming-ton. It tells truth forcibly, aSectionately, and with 
great candour : we wish, therefore, to introduce it to the favourable regard of all who 
would be zealous and useful Christians." — Revivalist, September, 1840. 

" This little cheap volume is all it pretends to be. It is a heart-stirrin"' appeal to 
selfish and lethargic, professors on behalf of the unenlightened and perishing ; and it 
deserves to be read by every Chrisdan." — Eclectic Review, November, 1840, 

" The writer of this essay has of late been blessed in his work with seasons of 
refreshing from the presence of the Lord. He has been favoured to witness a mighty 
' shaking among the dry bones.' His design in the essay before us is to stir up the 
minds of his brethren, and of Christians in"" general, to labour more earnestly in the 
work of saving souls." — Congregational Magazine, September, 1840. 

" The sincerity, the earnestness, and the deep-toned piety which pervade every page 
are likely to arouse the slumbering, encourage the dmid, and animate the already 
active Christian to yet nobler efforts in the cause of Christ. We earnestly recommend 
the rich to purchase largely for gratuitous distribution." — Christian Reformer^ 
August 15, 1840. 

" The object of this little work is to impress upon Christians the fearful weight of 
obligation under which they lie to rescue from eternal death every human being with 
whom they may come into contact. So excellently, indeed, has he illustrated his 
positions, and so solemnly brought them home to all who bear the name of Jesus, that 
we anticipate great efiects from the perusal of his littie volume. As an awakening, 
conyinciniT, instructive, judicious, and faithful remembrancer, it deserves to be read 
again and again, and the more it is read the greater will its value appear. Our 
prayer is, thai it may be blessed to the good of many, and we are firmly persuaded 
that we are discharging a duty by warmlv recommending it to all our readers." — 
Orthodox Presbyterian Review, September, 1840. 

"The object of 'Decapolis' is clearly indicated bv its title. The tone of the 
^n^po>i"on is in perfect keeping with its character and object."— Pairio/, AuguH 



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